Police Seek Man Suspected of Smashing Windows at Halal Market in Portland
While police say a witness saw the vandalism take place, they have not identified a suspect or a motive. A national advocacy group on Tuesday called on police to investigate whether anti-Muslim bias motivated the vandalism at the market – halal means food that is prepared under Islamic guidelines – given reports of other incidents around the country in recent weeks.
The owner of the business, Ali Daham, 39, said he has received threatening messages since October.
The vandalism prompted condemnation from advocates for Muslim-Americans.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington D.C.-based civil rights and advocacy group, said he learned of the vandalism through a news report. From the information available, he suspected a bias-motivated attack because nothing was taken from the store.
"When someone doesn’t write ‘death to Islam’ in graffiti on the wall, you have to go with these other indications, which in this case, I think are there,” Hooper said.
His group urged police to consider bias as a possible motive, given the recent spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide, Hooper said in a statement. Hooper’s group has tracked an uptick in anti-Muslim incidents in states such as New York, Oklahoma and California since the November election.
Portland police said Tuesday that a witness reported seeing a man with what appeared to be a baseball bat run up to the market and break six large windows across the front of the store around 11 p.m. Saturday. The suspect was gone when police arrived. No windows were broken in neighboring businesses, including an adjoining storefront with several large plate glass windows that wrap around the corner of Forest avenue and Revere Street.
Police have not identified a potential motive or suspect, and have not speculated on whether it was a hate crime.
"There was nothing to say it was targeted for that reason,” Lt. Robert Martin said. "It’s odd – the number of windows that were broken, but we’ve had incidents before where someone goes on a rampage for some (unknown) reason.”
Police said the hole in one window was large enough for a person to climb through, but investigators and the owner found no evidence that anything was missing from the store, Martin said.
He said detectives are reviewing surveillance video to try to identify the suspect. They also planned to speak to people in nearby businesses to see if any had security cameras that recorded the incident.
The suspect was described by the witness as a white man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and light-colored pants. Investigators will release a picture of the suspect if surveillance footage yields an image that would aid in identifying the subject, Martin said.
On Tuesday morning, the market was open and the windows were covered with sheets of plywood.
Someone had posted a sign on the plywood covering the shattered glass, condemning the use of violence.
"There is no excuse for such infantile vandalism,” the message read. "Grow up. Learn to use words.”
It was signed "by a long-time Mainer” and neighbor, but did not give a name.
Source: Portland Press Herald
