California Cases Investigated as Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A 40-year-old Southern California man accused of pulling a knife and threatening a Muslim woman at a car wash in the city of Chino Hills was charged Monday with a hate crime, authorities said, in one of several anti-Muslim incidents under investigation in the region.
Daniel Senteno, who was arrested Thursday in Chino Hills, has been charged with misdemeanor brandishing of a deadly weapon, with an allegation that he did it for the purpose of intimidating and interfering with the victim's constitutional rights, San Bernardino County prosecutors said.
Senteno was held in lieu of $75,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. It wasn't immediately known if he has a lawyer, the Associated Press reported.
The incident and other recent vandalism and attacks against mosques and Muslims in California come after a couple who federal officials say pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant extremists killed 14 people at a holiday luncheon in San Bernardino on Dec. 2.
Vandals spray-painted graffiti about Jesus at two mosques in Hawthorne and left a device that looked like a hand grenade in one of the driveways, leading police to investigate both incidents as hate crimes.
In Palm Springs, a fire that authorities said was intentionally set damaged a mosque Friday. They arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the fire and booked him on suspicion of commission of a hate crime, arson, maliciously setting a fire and burglary.
