Utah Man Faces Hate-Crime Charges After Allegedly Attacking Father and Son, Shouting ‘I Hate Mexicans’

A Utah man is facing federal hate-crime charges after allegedly attacking a Mexican-American father and son with a metal pole and shouting, “I hate Mexicans,” BuzzFeed News reports. Alan Covington, 50, was charged by a federal grand jury Wednesday with three counts of committing hate-crime acts for allegedly attacking the two men in addition to a third man because he believed they were Mexican, according to court documents. Authorities said Covington walked into Lopez Tires in Salt Lake City on Nov. 27, 2018, yelling, “I’m here to kill a Mexican” and “I hate Mexicans” before striking the victims. The shop owner, identified by family as Jose Lopez, got eight stitches in his arm and suffered bruising on his back, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help him pay for medical bills. His son Luis, who suffered a blow to the head that left him unconscious, underwent a three-hour surgery to place a titanium plate in the right side of his face, which was “shattered” in the attack. Local prosecutors were unable to file hate-crime charges under state law.