Police believe an attack Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot outside the Southgate shopping mall in Edmonton was motivated by hate. A local man faces three criminal charges. (Google Street View)

Police treating Edmonton parking lot attack on Somali women as a hate crime

A 41-year-old Edmonton man is facing three criminal charges and a Somali woman and her adult daughter are likely seeking love and comfort from friends and family as they grapple with the emotional aftermath of an attack Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of a local shopping centre.

Witnesses told police that two women–both wearing hijabs–were sitting in their car when a man approached them and began yelling racially-motivated obscenities at them.

He then punched and broke through the passenger window, prompting the woman in that seat to run away. 

The man then chased her, pushed her to the ground, and assaulted her before attacking the second woman who tried to help, according to the witnesses.

Passersby then intervened and held the man until police arrived.

According to Statistics Canada, approximately 2,000 hate-motivated crimes occurred in Canada in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Polce say that’s how they are treating what happened Tuesday.

“The attack on these women is horrific and our hearts go out to them,” Sgt. Gary Willits with the Edmonton Police hate crimes unit said in a news release. 

“These individuals were targeted due to their race, therefore making this a hate-motivated crime.”

Momin Saeed is executive director of the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council. (CBC News)

Momin Saeed, executive director of the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council, told CBC News Edmonton that the effects of such attacks are far-reaching–generating a “spillover effect” of fear throughout the Muslim community.

“People will be more on edge and more suspect of others because of this,” he said. 

“Clearly this is a concern for me and I think it would be a concern for anyone who is targeted and visibly Muslim.”

Faisal Khan Suri, the council’s president told CBC News there has been a troubling rise in Islamophobia and racism in general over the past five years, especially online.

Faisal Khan Suri is president of the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council. (CBC News)

“Some of the rhetoric we see happening south of the border [in the United States] … is creeping into our society,” Suri said.

“And once you have allowed fascism to creep in, things become somewhat normal for those individuals who have such pent-up feelings.”

A report by the CBC’s Jason Procter in June found that only 31 per cent of the hate-motivated crimes that took place in Canada in 2018 were solved.

Of those, Procter reported, 68 per cent resulted in charges against one or more individuals.

Richard Bradley Stevens has been charged with two counts of assault and one count of mischief, as a results of the events Tuesday afternoon.

With files from CBC News 

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