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Utah Man Arrested After Terrorizing Family With Bat, Shouting Racial Slurs

A Utah man is in custody after authorities say he terrorized a family with a baseball bat before hurling racial slurs at them.

Roland Hicks, 44, admits he was drunk off of Four Loko, a highly alcoholic malt beverage, at the time of the incident, local station ABC 4 reported. He reportedly approached the family at random and began smashing objects around them with his bat.

Roland Hicks

Roland Hicks, 43, has a lengthy criminal history that includes arrests for intoxication, assault, burglary, DUIs and other offenses. (ABC 4 / video screenshot)

A man flagged down a Tooele City Police Department officer on Thursday, saying he and his family had just been threatened by a man with a bat. The victim said Hicks, whom he’d never seen before, threatened to fight them and screamed the N-word multiple times.

According to charging documents, a woman in the group claimed Hicks continued shouting at them and striking things with his bat, despite their attempts to ignore him.

A young girl also told police the had used a racial slur and then said he was going to “f–k them up.”

Hicks was ultimately arrested on three counts of felony aggravated assault, ABC 4 reported. He also faces a misdemeanor charge for intoxication; police said Hicks’ blood alcohol level (BAC) was .161 at the time of his arrest.

This isn’t his first brush with the law either. A background check revealed Hicks has a long criminal history that includes arrests for intoxication, theft, assault and drug possession, among other offenses, ABC 4 reported.

The race of the family Hicks targeted wasn’t documented, but the Tooele County Attorney’s office said it will investigate if the attack was racially motivated once they receive the full details of the report.

Watch more in the video below.

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