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Sun 4 Sep, 2016 04:14 am
Hundreds at New York mosque mourn woman murdered in 'hate crime'
Nazma Khanam’s death comes just weeks after two men were shot in the back of the head after midday prayers, rocking the Queens Bangladeshi community
Mazin Sidahmed
Saturday 3 September 2016 07.30 EDT
Hundreds of people gathered at a mosque in Queens, New York, on Friday to mourn a 60-year old Bangladeshi woman murdered in what they say was a hate crime.
“I saw my mother’s dead body two days ago,” said Naimul Khan, son of the slain Nazma Khanam. “It was very difficult for me and my family,” an emotional Khan added.
Khan was speaking at a press conference held after a prayer service at the Jamaica Muslim Center where hundreds had gathered. Nazma Khanam’s husband and widower Shamsul Alam Khan weeped into the microphone and implored those gathered to pray for his wife.
Khanam, 60, was killed a few feet from her 75-year old husband on Wednesday night after the two were walking back from a souvenir shop. Khan has asthma so he walked behind his wife, who was a teacher in Bangladesh and moved to New York a few years ago. An unidentified man then ran up and stabbed Khanam multiple times.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/03/new-york-muslim-murder-bangladeshi-nazma-khanam
Oregon White Supremacist Mowed Down Black Teenager With His Jeep
Larnell Malik Bruce was running home after a brutal beating.
By Sophia Tesfaye / Salon
September 1, 2016
In what seems a growing pattern of racially motivated attacks, comes the report of another murder of an African American by apparent white supremacists.
Larnell Malik Bruce and a group of friends were gathered outside a 7-Eleven store in Gresham, a small town near Portland, when Russell Courtier, 38, and his girlfriend Colleen Hunt, 35, pulled up in their 1991 red Jeep Wrangler shortly before midnight on August 10.
Bruce, who was just a few days shy of his 20th birthday, had been charging his phone outside the convenience store when the white couple nearly twice his age exited their vehicle. For reasons still unclear, a fight broke out.
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As Courtier smashed Bruce’s head into the store’s front window, cracking a pane of glass, his girlfriend encouraged the beating.
“Get him, baby,” Hunt urged her boyfriend, according to police. “Get him, baby!”
Eventually, Bruce pulled out a machete and the couple retreated back to their Jeep.
What happened next can perhaps best be described as a scene from the violent Jim Crow South.
Investigators said Bruce tried to run away from the couple who began to chase him down in their car. Security camera footage shows the teen doing his best to zigzag away from the SUV. Per the Portland Mercury, Courtier and Hunt barely missed Bruce as they gunned the car toward him on the sidewalk. As he tried to cross the street, the couple’s Jeep is seen moving into oncoming traffic and hitting the teenager head-on, although the direct impact is not caught on camera.
Police, who had been called by a 7-Eleven employee when the fight broke out, arrived on the scene moments later to find the critically injured teen lying in the middle of the street with blood gushing from his head. Bruce died from his injuries days later.
Prison records obtained by the Portland Mercury reveal that Courtier is a longtime criminal with a notorious history as a member of a white supremacist prison gang called European Kindred (EK) who was on parole at the time of killing:
In February 2004, while still in prison, Courtier was busted for getting that logo tattooed on his calf and for having a “make-shift tattoo gun” and extra ink in his cell (see that record here). Just two months later, he brawled with a black inmate in the crowded prison yard before “a group of white inmates faced off against a group of black inmates,” records show (document).
And in 2005, while at SRCI, a letter he wrote to another EK member—intercepted by prison staff—indicated he needed backup from his gang because he was “getting run up on by redskins.” (document) That year, Courtier was also accused of throwing a piece of ****-smeared paper at a guard who was a person of color, and later threatened to “take care” of him when he got out.
In total, Courtier was accused of nearly 40 “major” prison violations between 2001 and 2013—for assaults, for joining and associating with EK members, for his prison tattoos (he was busted in 2005 for tattooing “party bone” on his penis, for instance), for having contraband in his cell, for disrespect, for not following rules (see his entire DOC discipline record here).
He hasn’t fared much better outside of prison. Courtier’s had seven felony and four misdemeanor convictions, court records show. He also has an extensive juvenile record that includes multiple assaults and burglary.
As the New York Daily News, which first brought this story to national prominence, noted, Courtier was able to skirt the law in a number of cases before his encounter with the black teenager:
In 2011, he got away with illegally shooting several rounds from his car because police performed an illegal search. The next year, he slammed a woman’s head into a windshield, but was only given probation. He had just spent two years in prison for attacking another Oregon woman with a knife, and was on parole for this crime the night he killed Larnell Bruce.
On August 18, a grand jury indicted Courtier and Hunt for murder. However, the two have not been charged with any hate crimes. Both pleaded not guilty in Bruce’s death during an August 22 court appearance, according to KGW. Their trial is scheduled to begin October 3.
Bruce’s family set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the cost of medical bills and his funeral expenses. A post on the page reads:
We lost our son, brother, cousin, nephew and friend to a senseless crime. He was just 19 years old and still had a full life to live.
Though this tragedy has devastated our family, Larnell has the opportunity to save many lives through the Organ Donor program.
We are asking for help to cover the funeral and medical expenses.
Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's Deputy Politics Editor. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.
@McGentrix,
Yeah. He has like a million
@bobsal u1553115,
There is nothing in this article that points to a hate crime. If the husband was with her when it happened, why didn't he mention the color of the person who stabbed and killed his wife...
@bobsal u1553115,
This story seems to hold some weight but I find it interesting that Bruce had a machete on his person. Who walks around with a machete?
Quote:For reasons still unclear, a fight broke out.
Reasons unclear? I'm guessing the 2 groups got into an exchange of words...
@Baldimo,
Yeah because having a machete is wrong and abnormal but unlicensed open and un-permitted concealed carry is muy bueno, and legal.
He should have never carried a knife to gunfight.
@bobsal u1553115,
Quote:Yeah because having a machete is wrong and abnormal but unlicensed open and un-permitted concealed carry is muy bueno, and legal.
Sure, depending on where you live. Open Carry is legal in CO but un-permitted carry conceal is illegal and from a brief overview of the laws, it looks like Oregon is very much like CO.
Do you know anyone who carries a machete for personal defense? I sure as hell don't know anyone.
Quote:He should have never carried a knife to gunfight.
There was no gun involved.
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