Police are scrutinizing the CCTV footages
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police has registered a case of hate crime after a Nepali-Indian grocery store was attacked and left with a note that says “White America”. The police news statement on Friday said that the attackers have threatened to torture the owner of the store if they don’t leave the town.
The police have confirmed that the window pane of the Central Marker’s front door was broken and a small fire broke off inside after the attackers threw a burning rock. The fire apparently got doused by itself. They also said that the investigation is looking at the attack as a possible hate crime.
Police are scrutinizing the CCTV footages of the store located in the largest city in North Carolina and looking into a person seen on the video, but have not made any arrests, the statement said. They also confirmed that nobody was hurt in the attack.
“A note was also left at the scene near the door that stated the suspect did not want any refugee business owners and that they would torture the owner if they did not leave and go back to where they came from,” CMPD said. “The suspect signed the letter ‘White America.’”
“We need more safety and more security as business owners,” Dhimel told The Charlotte Observer.
Dhimel fled from Nepal from Bhutan in early 1990s and later immigrated to the US in 2010. He started the store in 2014 and has been running the business for the past three years and has not faced any ant-immigrant sentiments, The Charlotte Observer reported.
He also told the newspaper that the note left after the attack shows the ignorance of the assailants about the importance of immigrants and refugees in the community.
“If they want to know about refugees and immigrants and our backgrounds, they need to come to us and listen to us,” Dhimel said. “We can explain to them how we help this country, how we give back to this country.