Kansas authorities have arrested a man they say kicked a 1-year-old boy in the back while yelling obscenities inside a Wichita supermarket early Sunday morning.
Wichita Police nabbed 31-year-old Riff Trace for “battery that was biased and racially motivated,” as well as for resisting arrest, local station KWCH 12 reported. The incident unfolded just after 7:20 a.m,. as mother Lashantai Whitaker and her children were shopping at Dillons, a Kansas-based grocery chain.
Riff Trace tried to escape after the attack, but was tackled and held on the ground by citizens until police arrived. (Image courtesy of KWCH 12)
“Through the investigation, it was learned Trace walked into the Dillons store and kicked a 1-year-old victim in the back, causing the child to fall on the floor,” police said, describing the incident as a “racially motivated bias crime.”
Police added that Trace hurled obscenities and slurs at the boy during the assault. Fellow shoppers jumped in to help, pinning the suspect to the ground until law enforcement arrived.
“We were barely in the store and (Trace) kicked him in his back,” Whitaker told the station, saying she was still shaken up over the incident. “All I heard was a loud thud and my daughter screaming.”
She said her son was uninjured in Trace’s “sneak attack,” but said the suspect “could have done serious damage” attacking her child like that. Whitaker said she hopes Trace serves time for what he did.
“What grown person, I mean, even if you do have that much hate for someone, … I mean, why would you attack a baby?” she said.
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