TERROR

Man Charged With Hate Crime After Shouting Slurs, Shooting at Black Women: Police

Joshua Rousseau allegedly yelled racial slurs at a group of Black women, then fired shots at them, refusing to stop even when the cops showed up.

Joshua Rousseau, 36, faces hate-crime charges after shooting at a group of Black women at Clam Bayou Nature Park in Florida, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Rousseau was allegedly on his kayak when he started to yell racial slurs at the group. He proceeded to fire his gun at them, and even shot at police when they came to the scene. Luckily, there were no reported injuries. He’s been charged with six counts of aggravated assault, and hate crime charges have been filed for five of the cases, prosecutors say. Since all of the charges filed are considered second-degree felonies, Rousseau will face up to 15 years in prison per count if convicted. Police reportedly arrested Rousseau five days after the incident because they did not know how many weapons he had with him on his sailboat, where he lives. “We had our people sit on him and wait on him to come out, instead of creating a situation where he might be firing from the boat,” she said.