A Detroit woman is speaking out about a harrowing ordeal. A group of angry Arab men allegedly threatened her after an accident in the city.
At the same time, her attorney is calling for hate-crime charges against the suspects, who allegedly used racial slurs and called the victim other graphic names following the accident. Viral video shows part of the attack.
It happened on Sept. 12, in the city’s Warrendale neighborhood.
Police told local news outlets an 18-year-old Arab female ran a red light, crashing into the vehicle of Susan Smith, a Black woman.
“My car was immediately surrounded by 20 to 30 men,” an emotional Smith explained in a press conference.
“They opened all the car doors and took my purse out of the front seat of the car. They took the license plate off the car and pushed it two blocks away,” the distraught driver tearfully recounted.
“The car disappeared, and she disappeared [the other driver]. This guy just started yelling and cussing and calling us all kind of names, and before it was all said and done there were about 75 to 80 men and two police officers,” she added.
Smith’s attorney Johnny Hawkins called the incident a “serious crime.”
“This is a mob, a group of individuals, again, of Arabic descent and let’s be clear. We’re not saying that this is characteristic or common for persons of Arabic descent. That’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying that those who did the wrong here, they should be punished,” Hawkins stated.
He explained that the videos online did not show the incident in its entirety.
“So it’s not just one man who the video captured making the threat in the moment but a multitude of men that were stating and making very strong comments toward my client, using racial epithets and using the ‘B’ word and being very threatening and aggressive toward her,” he continued.
“This is a serious crime that’s being alleged, being a hate crime involving a large mob, all of Arabic descent, that really should never have happened,” he stated.
Hawkins said he’s not saying Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy isn’t doing her job.
“We just haven’t heard anything. There’s a dereliction of duty with regard to police on the day of. We have not heard from them yet to say what they’re doing to correct that,” he added.
But authorities have made some progress in the case.
Prosecutors have charged an 18-year-old female with two misdemeanors,” Fox 2 reported. Investigators also submitted an arrest warrant for a 20-year-old Detroit man, who was allegedly part of the melee after the accident.
But a judge denied the warrant for insufficient evidence.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement reading in part, “When the police complete the investigation and submit the warrant request, we will make a charging decision based solely upon the facts and the law.”
