Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Men arrested on hate crime charges

They are accused of throwing beer bottles, yelling racial epithets and threatening to kill a club owner.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published September 23, 2006

TAMPA - Two Polk County men were jailed on hate crime charges after they threw beer bottles at an Ybor City club owner and threatened to kill him, police say.

Joseph Azzi, manager of Club Fuel on Seventh Avenue, was in the rear parking lot of his club speaking Arabic early Friday when two white men got out of a light blue sport utility vehicle and began yelling across the lot.

"Towel head," the men shouted, along with other offensive phrases for people of Arab descent.

According to Ahmed Bedier, the head of the Council for American-Islamic Relations in Tampa, Azzi didn't know what was happening. Bedier spoke to Azzi by telephone on Friday after the incident.

Though Lebanese-born, Azzi recently became a U.S. citizen.

Bedier says he told the two strangers, "Listen, I'm American, just like you."

But that didn't stop the men.

Glass bottles smashed against the building around Azzi, missing him. Azzi was not seriously hurt, but when the men threatened to get a gun and kill him, he ran to a nearby restaurant for help, police said.

Off-duty Tampa police Officer Brian Felts quickly called for officers to be on the lookout for the light blue Ford Expedition.

Within minutes, two suspects were found at N 15th Street and E Palm Avenue.

Lee Walter Hill, 28, of Auburndale and James Edward Butts, 25, of Lakeland were arrested on charges of aggravated battery. Hill was being held in lieu of $7,500 bail. Butts was released on bail Friday evening.

Because investigators determined the crime was precipitated by hatred based on ethnicity, the penalty has been enhanced to the status of a hate crime.

"This is one of those crimes that truly shocks the public conscience," Maj. Bob Guidara said Friday.

There have been 10 reported hate crimes in Tampa to date this year, Guidara said.

FBI Special Agent Jody Norris, who investigates civil rights violations, said reported hate crimes are increasing in the Tampa Bay area.

But officers say getting people to report such incidents to police is not easy.

Bedier said that Azzi did not even think of what happened to him as a hate crime until police began investigating it as such. Azzi told Bedier he doesn't believe he even looks Arab.

"He just doesn't understand that someone would hate him because of the way he looks or the language he speaks," Bedier said. "He was shocked."

Azzi could not be reached by the St. Petersburg Times for comment.

Nationally, a record 1,972 anti-Muslim civil rights violations were reported to CAIR in 2005 - up from 1,522 in 2004 and 1,019 in 2003. Statewide, CAIR counted 112 incidents, and in Central Florida, a record 54.

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 01:07:32]