During a road rage incident, Adam Kraus, a white man from Fayetteville, Penn., threatened to lynch two Black people and called them racial slurs while holding a handgun out of his car window. Authorities have charged Kraus with a felony hate crime.
The incident occurred the evening of June 30 when Kraus began tailgating and flashing his truck’s high beams at the victims’ car while they traveled in Lower Allen Township, according to The Sentinel.
An affidavit by Lower Allen Township Police states that as the vehicles traveled down Route 15, Kraus, who the victims described as “a white man between 28 to 35 years old with gaps in his teeth and blond hair” allegedly drove his truck beside their car and began a racist rant.
The victims said he also shouted that he was going to “kill them and hang one of them from a tree while waiving a Black handgun out of the window,” the newspaper reports.
The two vehicles eventually went opposite directions. But the victims took down Kraus’ license plate number, which they provided to police and positively identified him in a photo lineup.
Kraus was arraigned on Wednesday and also charged with misdemeanor simple assault and misdemeanor terroristic threats, along with the hate crime charge, referred to in the state of Pennsylvania as felony ethnic intimidation. He was released on unsecured bail and a preliminary hearing will take place in September, The Sentinel reports.
The population of Lower Allen Township in Cumberland County is predominantly white at 82.2 percent; 9.8 percent of residents are Black, 5.2 percent Latino and 2.5 percent Asian. The median household income is $56,442.
Related Story: White Woman Loses Job After Racist Road Rage Incident: Video
This month, a racist road rage incident also took place on a California Bay Area freeway. A video captured a portion of the incident showing a white woman cursing and then using the N-word, calling a Black couple riding alongside her “Fu**ing filthy, b**ch a** c*nt ni**ers.”
She lost her job as a result.
