A Florida man faces charges for hurling racial slurs and assaulting three teens, two of which were Black, MSN reports.
Richard Burnham, 58, is charged with three counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal mischief causing damage of $1,000 or more after "an unprovoked, racially prejudiced attack on a car occupied by three high school students at a gas station in the Osteen area," according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, My News 13 reports.
A DeLand man is facing enhanced charges in an unprovoked, racially prejudiced attack on a car occupied by three high school students at a gas station in the Osteen area. https://t.co/H5gM5gOM84
pic.twitter.com/tnVtsmwYkY— Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) January 27, 2022
Richard Burnham goes on unprovoked racially motivated rampage against the teens.
On Saturday, Jan. 22, police say Burnham started tormenting the high schoolers by spewing racial insults at them as they pumped gas.
"He was just kind of saying something to us and my friend who was driving. It's his car, he told him like get away from the car, back up," one of the teens told the operator after calling 911, MSN reports.
Allegedly, Burnham then retrieved a metal pipe from his truck.
"Somebody hit our window with a pole, we don't know what type of. We don't know what type of weapon it is, but it was heavy, and it shattered our window," one of the teens relayed to the 911 operator.
"He hit us [and] we kind of like pulled — we tried to like pull out of the way so he couldn't hit us again, and my friend got out of the car to, like, say what are you doing, and he tried to come back and hit us, so we left because we were scared," the teen added.
The three teens attempted to drive away from Burnham to de-escalate the situation, however, they said he pursued them with his truck, according to My News 13.
When police officials arrived, they noticed the victims' vehicle, a 2022 Toyota Camry, had a smashed window, and the vehicle's panels were also damaged, the Atlanta Black Star reports.
Burnham's charges were later elevated to a hate crime because of the racist language he allegedly used, due to Florida's hate crime law. Police took him into custody on Wednesday.
Burnham contends that the teens attacked and threatened him by shooting an airsoft gun at him. But the police determined that his account is inconsistent and contradicts the teens' narrative. Police also said they didn't find any weapons on the adolescents.
