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An Oregon man is facing hate crime charges for yelling homophobic slurs at an officer while holding a machete.
According to Willamette Week, prosecutors in Multnomah County have applied hate crime charges to a 20-year-old man who shouted anti-gay slurs while waving a machete at a loss prevention officer at a Portland mall’s Macy’s. The man is specifically charged with two intimidation counts, which are Oregon’s hate crime laws, a felony of unlawful use of a weapon, and four misdemeanors.
The officer, whose name was not disclosed in court records, allegedly saw the suspect, Camar Nickquarnie Livingstone, trying to steal clothes by putting them in his bookbag. The officer then approached Livingstone.
“You stalking me man?” Livingstone asked the loss prevention officer, according to court records. The records then say Livingstone yelled out obscenities like homophobic slurs at the officer.
Livingstone then walked away from the officer with clothes in hand. The officer followed and soon found the clothes being flown at his head.
“If you don’t stop following me, I will fuck you up so bad,” Livingstone allegedly said.
The affidavit then says that Livingstone threw his shoe at the officer before grabbing it and trying to exit. Things, unfortunately, got more violent as the affidavit says Livingstone punched the officer in the face after a call for backup was made.
It was then that the affidavit says Livingstone pulled out a “machete” hidden in his pants and started waving it at the officer and an additional guard. While Livingstone then fled the scene, the guards quickly found and arrested him.
Again, Livingstone is currently facing several charges, including two hate crime charges, despite the lack of evidence that Livingstone acted on suspicions of sexual orientation.
“Court documents allege that Livingstone unlawfully and intentionally, because of his perception of the victim’s sexual orientation, subjected that person to offensive physical contact,” said the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
