۱۰ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۹ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 29, 2024
News ID: 348146
28 December 2016 - 15:01
Police investigate Attack on halal market in Portland

US police are looking for the person suspected of using a baseball bat to smash six storefront windows in Portland. The suspect was described by the witness as a white man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and light-colored pants.

Hawzah News Agency (Portland, USA) - While police say a witness saw the vandalism take place, they have not identified a suspect or a motive. A national advocacy group on Tuesday, December ۲۷, called on police to investigate whether anti-Muslim bias motivated the vandalism at the market – halal means food that is prepared under Islamic guidelines – given reports of other incidents around the country in recent weeks.

 

The owner of the business, Ali Daham, 39, said he has received threatening messages since October.

“People on Facebook said they (are) going to do something,” Daham said. “I’m scared.”

 

The vandalism prompted condemnation from advocates for Muslim-Americans.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington D.C.-based civil rights and advocacy group, said he learned of the vandalism through a news report. From the information available, he suspected a bias-motivated attack because nothing was taken from the store.

 

His group urged police to consider bias as a possible motive, given the recent spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide, Hooper said in a statement. Hooper’s group has tracked an uptick in anti-Muslim incidents in states such as New York, Oklahoma and California since the November election.

Portland police said Tuesday that a witness reported seeing a man with what appeared to be a baseball bat run up to the market and break six large windows across the front of the store around 11 p.m. Saturday. The suspect was gone when police arrived. No windows were broken in neighboring businesses, including an adjoining storefront with several large plate glass windows that wrap around the corner of Forest avenue and Revere Street.

 

Police have not identified a potential motive or suspect, and have not speculated on whether it was a hate crime.

Police said detectives are reviewing surveillance video to try to identify the suspect. They also planned to speak to people in nearby businesses to see if any had security cameras that recorded the incident.

 

The suspect was described by the witness as a white man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and light-colored pants. Investigators will release a picture of the suspect if surveillance footage yields an image that would aid in identifying the subject.

Daham said it would cost about $3,000 to replace the glass. He did not know whether his insurance would cover the cost.

 

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