A white man in Virginia called the cops to falsely report that he was assaulted, but police say he turned out to be the aggressor and they believe its because the victims are black.
Authorities responded to a call from Edward Halstead, 53, in Lake of the Woods, Locust Grove on Tuesday at 7.15pm.
But after they ‘interviewed several people’ they ‘determined that the caller was in fact the perpetrator’.
‘It appears based on the interviews, that the perpetrator of the crimes did so because of the race of the victims,’ the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
Sheriff Mark Amos confirmed to The Associated Press that the victims are African American. They said the assaults happened in a common area.
Police said they wouldn’t be commenting further.
Halstead was booked into Central Virginia Regional Jail on charges including attempted strangulation and three counts of felonious assault and battery due to the victim’s race. One of the charges is listed as a class 6 felony hate crime.
He appeared in court Wednesday and the cases has been continued until Friday morning.
It came amid rising racial tensions in the US as African Americans and allies march and protest in many forms for the Black Lives Matter movement.
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