Novato police arrested a person suspected of vandalizing a automobile in a “racially motivated” incident on the Novato Truthful Procuring Heart.
The sufferer, a Black girl, informed police that shortly earlier than 6:30 p.m. Saturday she was sitting in her automobile when a person “directed a racial slur at her” and spat on her hood as he walked by, stated police Lt. Sophia Winter.
The lady drove after the person to ask why he spat on her automobile, and he “continued to verbally assault the sufferer and used racial slurs in opposition to her,” Winter stated. He additionally kicked her automobile door twice, “inflicting reasonable injury,” she stated.
The person left the procuring heart on foot and a witness known as police. About two hours later, police discovered a suspect at Diablo Avenue and George Avenue close to the procuring heart, Winter stated.
The suspect had “drug paraphernalia and was closely intoxicated on the time of his arrest,” Winter stated. She stated police “decided this incident was racially motivated” and “an unprovoked assault.”
Robert Lynn Thorne III, 39, of Petaluma was arrested on suspicion of a felony hate crime and several other misdemeanors and booked into the Marin County Jail. He remained there Monday in lieu of $50,000 bail. He's White, based on his reserving info.
“Hate crimes aren't solely an assault on the victims they aim, they're additionally an assault on our whole group,” police Chief Beth Johnson stated in a ready assertion. “We take studies of this nature very significantly. The protection and wellbeing of our group members is our prime precedence.”
The division requested anybody with info for the investigation to name 415-897-4361 and reference case No. NP22-3788.