WEST MONROE, La. (AP) - In a story Dec. 17 about hate crime arrests, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Naaz Modan is the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. She is the spokeswoman.
A corrected version of the story is below:
2 face hate crime charges in Walmart shopping cart attack
Two white men face a hate crime charge in northeast Louisiana. They’re accused of yelling racial slurs at a black woman and damaging her car by shoving a shopping cart into it as she drove off.
WEST MONROE, La. (AP) - Two white men are facing a hate crime charge in northeast Louisiana. News outlets report that they’re accused of yelling racial slurs at a black woman outside a Walmart and doing more than $1,000 in damage to her car by shoving a shopping cart into it as she drove off.
Dylan Reynolds, 22, of Columbia, and Michael Walters, 24, of West Monroe, were arrested Thursday, two days after West Monroe police posted store surveillance photos of the men on the department’s Facebook page.
The application for an arrest warrant said the incident occurred Nov. 29 as the woman was leaving a Walmart store. The men confronted her as she loaded up her car, and one ran after her car as she drove off, according to the document. That man “violently crashed” an empty shopping cart into the rear bumper as the woman slowed for speed bumps, damaging the car and endangering the woman’s safety, it said.
They then sped off in a dark gray Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck.
Reynolds, who is free on $20,000 bond, could not be reached for comment. A call to a number provided by directory assistance was answered with a recorded request for a voicemail password.
Walters remained in jail Monday. Online records show he was re-booked Monday on a charge of violating parole.
It was not clear whether either has an attorney who could comment.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations emailed a news release Monday about the arrests.
“By charging the alleged perpetrators of this attack with felony hate crimes, law enforcement authorities are sending the message that bias-motivated violence will not be tolerated,” said spokeswoman Naaz Modan.
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