By Scott North and Warren Cornwall
Herald Writers
Two Snohomish County men were in serious legal trouble Friday after separate incidents that police described as anti-Arab or anti-Muslim crimes likely fueled by this week’s terrorist attacks.
An Everett man was ordered jailed in lieu of $5,000 bail Friday after he allegedly threatened a woman of Middle Eastern descent while she was trying to pick up her children from an elementary school earlier this week.
Meanwhile, a Snohomish man was hospitalized and embroiled in allegations of anti-Muslim crimes at a north Seattle mosque Thursday night.
The 53-year-old allegedly poured gas in a parking lot outside the mosque, pointed a handgun at worshippers and rammed one of their cars before driving into a telephone pole.
The incidents occurred in the wake of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The bombers have suspected ties to the Middle East.
Dislike for people of Middle Eastern descent is what apparently motivated Edward G. Havens, 41, to jump in front of a 28-year-old Everett woman’s car Wednesday, beating on the vehicle with his fists and spitting on the windows, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor John Stansell said during a brief hearing in Everett District Court. The woman, who speaks no English, feared for her life.
A witness at Olivia Park Elementary School, meanwhile, saw Havens staring at another woman of Arab descent and stating loudly that he "did not want his children around those (expletive) people," Stansell said.
The prosecutor asked for $100,000 bail, saying Havens is being investigated for racially motivated malicious harassment, a felony.
"What?!" Havens gasped, and then buried his face in his hands, apparently sobbing.
Havens’ attorney, Mark Stephens, told Judge Thomas Kelly that while the alleged conduct, if proved, can’t be condoned, it likely did not constitute a felony.
"While I understand the current climate gives us cause for concern over an allegation like this," the requested $100,000 bail is "pretty outrageous," Stephens added.
Bail that high is usually reserved for murders, violent assaults or cases where there is a risk the defendant may flee.
Kelly ruled there was probable cause to believe that Havens may have committed malicious harassment, but he set bail at a fraction of what prosecutors had sought.
Havens was arrested Thursday after a Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office investigation of Wednesday’s incident.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said the arrest "should send a clear message that hate crimes or any form of harassment or intimidation will not be tolerated in Snohomish County."
The man under investigation for the incident at Seattle’s Idriss Mosque near Northgate has not yet appeared in court, so is not named.
Two people from the mosque confronted him after smelling gasoline around their cars following a late-night prayer service, according to a Seattle police report.
The man, who had a red gas can in one hand, pointed a small handgun at the two, pulled the trigger several times, and said: "Don’t touch me. Stay away from me. I’ll shoot you. I’ll shoot you," the report says.
The gun later fired, but the bullet didn’t hit anyone, Seattle police spokesman Scott Moss said.
The two witnesses then got in a car and followed the man to a nearby grocery store parking lot, where he got into a car. They sought to block him in the parking space with their car to keep him from escaping before police arrived, but the man rammed their car several times and drove away, Moss said.
However, the man’s car crashed into telephone pole near the mosque. When police arrived, the man was found in the driver’s seat unconscious with his foot on the accelerator, and the car was on fire, Moss said.
The man was hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and was in satisfactory condition with facial lacerations Friday, a hospital official said.
Moss said when the man recovered, he would be taken to jail. The man is under investigation for arson and assault, Moss said.
The man could also face federal charges, said Agent Arthur Ahrens with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which was gathering evidence at the mosque Friday.
Moss said they had also drawn blood to see if the man was drunk at the time.
"According to the witnesses, he appeared to be extremely intoxicated," Moss said.
On Friday, well wishers came to the Idriss Mosque to show support. Mayor Paul Schell and Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowski offered to provide security to area mosques.
"We’re there to ensure there is religious freedom in this city, and it will be protected," Schell said.
A handful of other anti-Islamic incidents have been reported in the past few days. People left threatening phone calls at a Lynnwood mosque, which also had its sign splattered with black paint Tuesday.
In SeaTac, a cabdriver with a beard and turban was assaulted Thursday night after he picked up two men at a bar.
One of the men, 31, called the cabbie a "butcher terrorist" and tried to choke him, the King County sheriff’s office said Friday. The cabbie escaped from the vehicle, but the man punched him in the face, knocked off his turban and yanked out a chunk of his beard.
The cabbie flagged down a Port of Seattle police officer, who arrested the passenger for investigation of malicious harassment, a felony. His friend was arrested on an unrelated warrant.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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