A Bremerton, Washington, man was arrested and charged with a hate crime for allegedly stalking a Black man, calling him the N-word and nearly striking him with a vehicle.
Christopher Michael Humphries, 42, a white bartender at Sirens bar in Bremerton, was charged with a felony hate crime in Kitsap County Superior Court on Thursday, Dec. 10, after his attacks on a Black man spanned several days.
On Dec. 7, the person reporting the attacks detailed to police what he says he suffered at the hands of Humphries over several days, The Kitsap Sun reported.
According to the victim, the problems started after he and his manager went to Sirens on the previous Friday to have a beer.
According to police documents, Humphries, who was working at the bar that night, checked the man’s ID, then threw it back at him and called him the N-word, although he still served the man.
Both the man and his manager reported to police that Humphries followed them out of the bar, used a racial slur, and puffed out his chest and balled his fists as if ready to fight.
The victim told police he feared Humphries might assault him, so he punched him in the face and was able to get away.
But on Monday, Humphries drove a retired ambulance into the parking lot of a car dealership where the man worked, nearly striking the man and two customers with whom he was speaking. Humphries then exited the vehicle, called the man the N-word, and tried to pick a fight.
When police spoke to Humphries at Sirens, he admitted he had shown up at the man’s workplace, but denied using a racial slur and said the man had punched him. Officers arrested Humphries, who has been charged with a hate crime. The state of Washington called hate crimes “malicious harassment” up until 2016.
Lawmakers renamed the crime “to its more commonly understood title of ‘hate crime offense,’ ” following a significant increase in hate crimes since 2015.
