Hate crime charges ‘pending’ after reported strangulation of Bellingham Uber driver
A Bellingham Uber driver was reportedly choked by his passenger early Thursday along Barkley Boulevard, and the Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is now determining whether to charge the alleged assault as a hate crime.
Bellingham Police booked Grifin Levi Sayers, 22, into Whatcom County Jail on Dec. 5 on suspicion of second-degree assault and a failure-to-appear warrant for fourth-degree assault, and according to jail records he was released on $13,000 bail Friday evening.
Officers were sent to the 1400 block of Barkley Boulevard at approximately 4:06 a.m. Thursday for the report of an assault after an Uber driver called 911 to report he had been attacked by his passenger, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald.
The driver told police that he had picked up Sayers and took him to make some purchases, before returning to the pick-up location, Murphy said.
Sayers then became verbally and physically abusive against the driver, Murphy said, as Sayers reportedly grabbed the front of the driver’s throat and squeezed, restricting the driver’s ability to breathe.
While attempting to strangle him, Sayers made “racially biased comments about the victim’s ‘dark skin,’ the fact he was from India and the turban he was wearing,” Murphy said.
The driver was able to exit the car, left it behind and phoned 911, and Murphy said officers located Sayers nearby and arrested him.
“This assault is being investigated as a bias incident, as Sayers maliciously and intentionally assaulted the victim because of Sayers’ perception of the victim’s race, national origin and religion,” Murphy said. “Additional charges by the prosecutor’s office for (a) hate crime offense are pending.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Hate crime charges ‘pending’ after reported strangulation of Bellingham Uber driver."
