From NBC News
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man accused of harassing two teenage girls wearing hijabs and then swinging a knife and attacking their father is a facing a federal hate crime charge, the Justice Department said Monday.
A federal grand jury in Nashville has indicted Christopher Beckham and charged him with violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and lying to the FBI.
He is accused of confronting two sisters in hijabs after they got off a school bus and saying “Allahu Akbar!” and “Go back to your country,” federal court records say.
Beckham, according to the police filing, followed the girls after confronting them and told them he was going to beat them up. The girls’ father was headed home in his taxi and pulled over when he saw Beckham approaching his daughters, the affidavit said. Beckham shouted racial slurs at the dad, who was identified as Abdull Ali, and then pulled out a pocket knife and swung it at the father, the police report says.
The father ducked to the right and Beckham fell to the ground, the affidavit said. Ali, the affidavit says, fell twice during the scuffle while trying to defend himself. The father was not seriously injured.
