Two convicted felons are adding more crimes to their storied rap sheets after they decided to torment and attack a 66-year-old black man, solely based on his race, according to Spokane, Wash., police.
According to the Spokesman-Review, 32-year-old Jason Edward Cooper and 36-year-old Donald Lucas Prichard were arrested late Monday night after targeting Norris Cooley in the racially charged attack.
Cooper is accused of hurling racial slurs at Cooley, his neighbor, before punching the older man in his face and pointing a gun at his head. Cooper then took the gun and fired several rounds into Cooley’s home, which had people inside at the time.
Both men are facing charges of first-degree assault and malicious harassment.
The terrifying encounter started around 11 p.m. on Sunday while Cooley was cleaning out his garage. The two thugs approached Cooley and immediately started shouting racial slurs.
“Nigger, you don’t deserve to be breathing white man’s air,” one man told Cooley, according to Spokane police.
A friend of Cooley’s who was working on his car in the driveway told police that Cooper also said, “Smile, nigger, so I can see you. I might shoot you in the dark.”
Another neighbor told police that she could hear shouting from across the street, including shouts of “You’re just a nigger” and “Heill the KKK white power.”
The neighbor told officers that Cooley didn’t yell back.
Elizabeth Fisher, who shares a home with Cooley, said that Cooper came up to the older man without provocation and started calling him a “rapist, child molester and nigger.”
“The guy just came over here, saying that black lives don’t matter, only white lives matter,” Fisher told the news site. “We were so shocked it happened.”
Cooley reportedly told the men to leave him alone and went into his garage, but Cooper and Prichard followed him, and one of the men proceeded to punch Cooley in his face before pulling a “snub-nosed revolver” from his waistband, Cooley told police.
The man pointed the gun at Cooley and threatened to kill him. The friend who was working on the car told police that as the two thugs left, Cooper told him, “You’re gonna be next.”
Just when they thought that would be the end of the torment, gunshots started being fired. According to the Review, shots were fired about 20 minutes after the initial encounter while Cooley was back inside his home. Fisher, who was also inside when the shots were fired, said that it took a few seconds before everyone realized what had happened.
“We had to get on the ground,” she said.
The front porch was riddled with bullets.
“I was inches from being shot. That’s for sure,” Fisher said.
In an interview with detectives, Cooper’s girlfriend told detectives that the person she decided to spend time with is a “supremacist” who had “white power” tattooed on his leg.
The girlfriend’s daughter told police that Cooper is a “racist” who did not like “colored people,” and called him a “skinhead.”
The daughter told officers that after attacking Cooley, Cooper bragged to her mom about knocking “out the nigger.”
According to the Spokesman-Review, this quality addition to the gene pool has faced 13 felony charges, including burglary and assault, and was convicted 12 times.
His buddy, Prichard, is a 16-time convicted felon, according to KXLY.com.
Spokane police said that they are taking the accusations very seriously.
“Detectives worked for nearly 24 hours straight to bring this case to a resolution,” authorities said in a statement. “Spokane Police are aware of the negative impact incidents like this can have on our diverse community. … All of our community members deserve to feel safe.”
Read more at the Spokane-Review and KXLY.com.