A white Seattle man is in MAJOR trouble after allegedly attacking two people while spewing racial slurs at them. According to police, the suspect took it a step further than just offensive language.
The King County prosecutor’s office said a man called 911 on Feb. 25 to report seeing a white man attacking a woman outside of an apartment building in the First Hill neighborhood. According to King 5, the caller said two people were talking outside when the suspect approached them. Suddenly, the man erupted into a tirade of racial slurs, the caller said, per authorities. The race of the two individuals was not disclosed by authorities but police described the slurs to be “anti-Black.”
Things didn’t stop there. The woman told officers the suspect leapt over a railing and charged at her. She claimed she was knocked to the ground before being hailed with a “flurry” of punches and kicks while still being down, police said. The 911 caller corroborated this story, adding that the man fled the scene and ran back inside his apartment, per The Seattle Times.
However, once the man left his home, police say he was arrested by responding officers. Police identified the man as 42-year-old John David French. The woman who was allegedly attacked suffered a knee laceration and swelling to her head and face, police said.
French was taken into custody at the King County jail on a $20,000 bail. He was charged with second-degree assault and a hate crime offense. The report says French has no state record of prior convictions or arrests. Though, he did have a previous conviction for wrongful use of a controlled substance during his time in the U.S. Army in 2003, per the report.
Now, he’s managed to raise the number of reported hate crimes in the county to nine, per Seattle police data. Hate crimes in the state of Washington are considered a class C felony and carry a maximum sentence of five years.