FBI opens hate crime probe in Indiana attack on Muslim woman

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — The FBI has opened a hate crime investigation into an attack on a Muslim woman in which police say a 19-year-old Indiana University college student shouted racial slurs and tried to remove her headscarf.

19-year-old Triceten D. Bickford, an Indiana University student who faces multiple felony charges including intimidation, strangulation and battery in the Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, attack on a Muslim woman in a cafe in Bloomington, Ind. (Bloomington Police Department via AP)
October 22, 2015

FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne said Thursday that there is no deadline for concluding the investigation into Saturday's incident in Bloomington, Indiana. She said the FBI became aware of the incident Monday and started the investigation Tuesday.

"The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence and ensure the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner," she said. "We will conduct the investigation as expeditiously as possible."

Triceton Bickford of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been charged with multiple felony charges, including intimidation, strangulation and battery, in the attack on the 47-year-old woman outside a Turkish cafe. Bloomington is about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the Muslim woman was sitting at a table with her 9-year-old daughter when a man later identified as Bickford emerged from a nearby alley shouting "white power," anti-black racial slurs and "kill the police." Bickford grabbed the woman by the neck and forced her head forward, restricting her breathing as he tried to remove her headscarf, police say.

Indiana University expelled Bickford following reports of the attack. He was released Sunday from Monroe County's jail on $705 bond and other fees and is scheduled to appear in Monroe County court Friday.

Bickford has said he has no memory of the incident and that a combination of drinking alcohol and not taking his anti-anxiety medication caused him to snap. Court records do not indicate that Bickford has an attorney who could speak on his behalf. He didn't respond to email and phone requests for comment.

The federal statute sets a maximum 10-year prison sentence for a hate crime in most cases.

Well he may have been drunk & may not like Muslims. Oh well...
But he NEVER should of touched her! If he doesn't like burkas, that is HIS problem.
* Damn good chance he has gone after other women also, Muslim or not *

Hate crime??? Ugh.. Well if they are also willing to charge all Non White, Non Christian & Non Jewish... ( like that will happen ) with a 'hate crime ' as well as other charges & have an FBI investigation on ALL those... then yes.

Otherwise NO. Level the playing field & charge him simple assault & drunk & disorderly & maybe mandatary rehab..


* Dramatic Music *

just curious.. has anyone other than a white guy bee charged with a hate crime?

Alcohol consumption, won't fly as a defense.

He can finish his college education in prison.

The court should also mandate a vasectomy... The idiot is just too stupid to be allowed to breed.

I'm sayin, what about the black punk the cold cocked the old white lady? Oh, I forgot, blacks aren't racist.

Who, this guy?

Just some Guy who ran into a Door in the dark!

My all time fave Dave Chappelle episode.

Seriously though, those idiots that scream "white power" are the worst.
Ten years is a bit much...he should get a full season of jock strap cleaning duty for the Indiana Pacers.

Dindu Nuffin IV

Good point. You never hear about it being the other way around.

yes

generally, if race/gender/religion/sexual preference are specifically communicated as a motivation,, a hate crime investigation will incur

in 2011, for instance , 20 percent of hate crime offenders were black


media is not a good starting AND ending point for information, sometimes further research is necessary

the media doesn't report everything that happens and certainly what they do report is disproportionate to its actual occurrence


meaning, because this year there are 100 stories on kidnappings compared to 10 last year, doesn't indicate kidnappings are occurring more often, they may in fact be on the decline, but media is leading more often with those types of stories,,,