SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Police Friday publicly sought any possible witnesses to a pair of allegedly racially motivated attacks targeting Black people that occurred within 30 minutes of each other in Santa Monica, leaving one person injured.
According to the Santa Monica Police Department, a suspect later identified as Job Uriah Taylor, 25, approached a Black man who was walking his dog on the beach around 7:30 a.m. March 3 and threatened him with a metal pipe, while also yelling “several racial slurs at the victim.”
Some Santa Monica Fire Department personnel who were nearby intervened, fending off Taylor, who rode away on his bicycle, police said. The victim did not sustain any injuries.
About 20 minutes later, police responded to a reported assault at the Metro train station at Fourth Street and Colorado. According to police, the same suspect as the earlier confrontation was seen attacking a Black man and woman, striking both “multiple times in the head” with the same metal pipe, “while yelling more racial slurs.”
Taylor was taken into custody at the scene, police said, and he was later charged with attempted murder and assault, along with hate crime allegations.
The two victims in the train station attack were both taken to a hospital, and while one was released the same day, the other was still being treated for a head injury.
Santa Monica police asked that anyone who witnessed either crime or who may have additional information to contact SMPD Detective Jacob Halloway at 310-458-8934 or [email protected], or the watch commander at 310- 458-8426.
“It is the mission of the Santa Monica Police Department to safeguard the rights of all individuals irrespective of their disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and/or association with a person or group with one or more of these perceived characteristics,” according to a department statement.
Taylor remains jailed in lieu of $2.1 million bail, according to sheriff’s inmate records.
