The attacker had left a note saying, “We need to get rid of Muslims, Indians and all immigrants.”
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police on Sunday charged a 32-year-old African American man for allegedly attacking a South Asian-owned store, pretending to be a white supremacist, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Curtis Flournoy, who has been arrested five times for marijuana possession, attacked a Nepali -Indian store in Central Market on Thursday. The store sells fast food, groceries and gifts, mostly from the Indian subcontinent. It is operated by a Bhutanese refugee named Kamal Dhimal, according to the North Carolina newspaper.
The store’s front door was set on fire and a glass pane on the door was smashed. The incident was captured in a surveillance video and the police identified the “black male suspect.”
“Our newly elected president Donald Trump is our nation builder for White America. You all know that, we want our country back on the right track. We need to get rid of Muslims, Indians and all immigrants,” according to the note that Flournoy left behind.
The far right media groups and conservative websites insisted it as a faked, staged and a hoax hate crime. They suspect that Flournoy had a motive other than driving immigrants out.
Related: Nepali-Indian grocery store in North Carolina attacked, police suspect hate crime (April 8, 2017)
However, the police haven’t revealed the motivation behind the crime. City Council Member Dimple Ajmera told Observer that she’ll work round the clock till all businesses and all the residences feel safe.
Flournoy is charged with burning a building of trade, malicious damage by use of an incendiary material, felony breaking and entering, ethnic intimidation and anonymous or threatening letters.
Since the beginning of the 2016 presidential election cycle, violence against South Asian Americans and other immigrant groups have increased significantly.