“I’ll Kill This N…!” Is This a Hate Crime?

A Chicago man who went to Indiana in search for work ended up having his face slashed with a 7 inch knife!

Elree Jones was brutally attacked shortly after stopping at a Lafayette, Ind., convenience store on a late-night beer run on Aug. 30th.

The 34-year-old father of three recalled said he was talking on the phone in the store when a man walked in, walked straight toward him, and attacked him with a knife.

“He just slashed my face. I still had my phone in my hand. He slashed my face and I dropped the phone,” he said. “After he slashed my face, I was in shock. He kept going, so I was blocking [him]… he slashed me in my arm.”

Jones was able to get away and ran out the store, but his attacker followed. Jones said he had hatred in his eyes and venom spewing from his mouth. “He mumbled racial slurs… like he’ll kill me. ‘I’ll kill this n****r,’” Jones recalled.

Cops initially thought Jones did something to provoke his attack but surveillance video proved otherwise. “The white guy walked over. The black guy didn’t even look up like there was a problem. Nothing. And then you see the guy take out a knife and just lunge at him,” recalled Amber, a clerk at the store.

Amber said she saw the surveillance video after her manager brought her back to clean the bloody scene. She branded the attack a hate crime.

“It’s just sad that there is so much hate in the world. And another person could have no compassion for a human life. We all bleed the same,” she tearfully recalled.

Police used that surveillance video to track down 50-year-old Mark Neal, who’s since been charged with four felonies. Authorities said they’re looking into whether the incident can be classified as a hate crime, but said little else about their investigation.

Is this a hate crime?

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