A California couple has been hit with “hate crime” charges after they allegedly abused a black teenager they found hiding in their daughter’s closet.
San Bruno Police arrested the father of the girl, Luisandor Suarez, 49, her mother, Haydee Arguello, 46, and her stepfather, Wilfredo Amaya, 46, and charged them with a series of offenses including committing a hate crime, assault, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and criminal threats.
Police allege that when the three adults found the boy in the girl’s closet on August 22 they tied him with rope, barked racial epithets at him, and threatened to kill him, according to the Daily Mail.
“These family members ultimately restrained the victim using a rope. Held him against his will, assaulted him multiple times, and even threatened to kill him,” said San Bruno Police Department Lieutenant Ryan Johansen in a department Facebook video post.
The three reportedly let the boy go after at least 30 minutes of the abuse. The victim went to a hospital and was treated and released.
Lt. Johansen added that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime because the suspects “yelled at him using multiple racial slurs and he believed his race to be a motivating factor in the attack.”
One of the suspect’s other daughters, Belkys Gomez, defended her parents saying, “They were so scared because they found someone in the closet. They jumped because everyone was sleeping, and this guy started kicking my stepfather and trying to kill him.”
A third daughter, Katherine Gomez, also said that the boy punched her mother. She added that her father “tried to stop [the teen intruder] and he was acting very violent, so they grabbed a rope to try to tie him down and ask him why he was at the house.”
Both girls deny any “hate crime” occurred.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.