University police issued a warning to the UC Santa Barbara community this week, alerting them to be on the lookout for the suspect(s) involved in at least two on-campus hate crimes.
Both instances involved a suspect, described as a white male, yelling racist profanities at victims in a way that police said was “motivated by bias” against the victims’ perceived ethnicities.
While it hasn’t been confirmed if the suspect is the same man in both reports, police said they believe the incidents are related.
The first crime was reported on Monday, according to the warning, at around 5:55 p.m. outside of the Student Health Service building.
The suspect, who police said was a stranger to the victim, approached the victim and yelled, “Get out of my country!”
He then followed it by asking, “Do you have a green card?”
In addition to the verbal abuse, the suspect then rode his bicycle toward the victim and spat in the victim’s face. Police said another person nearby was also struck by the suspect’s spit.
Officials described this suspect as a white man about 23-27 years old who stands roughly 5 feet and 11 inches tall. He has blonde hair and a beard, and was said to be wearing a navy-blue hat, dark colored hoodie, dark colored pants, black Nike shoes and had a black backpack.
The suspect was also in possession of a black beach cruiser-style bicycle, police added.
While the second hate crime was reported around 8:18 p.m. on Tuesday, police said it happened before the first crime.
According to the report, it was around 5 p.m. when another “incident of intimidation motivated by bias against the victim’s perceived ethnicity” happened outside the Isla Vista Theater.
This time, the suspect was seated in front of the theater and yelled, “Get the f— out of this country b—-!”
He then reiterated his racist profanities at the victim, yelling, “Hey b—-, I said get the f—- out of this country!”
Police said this suspect is also described as a white male adult, but in this report he was estimated to be around 35 years old, standing 5 feet and 6-8 inches.
He’s estimated to weigh about 140-150 pounds, with blonde, medium-length hair and scruffy facial hair.
The similarities that this suspect description shares with the last, in addition to the blonde hair, is that this suspect was also said to be wearing dark jeans and a dark jacket, and he had a bicycle.
UCPD said it is investigating these crimes and asks anyone with information that might assist in the investigation to contact the UCSB Police Department at 805-893-3446, or report crime information anonymously at www.police.ucsb.edu/report-crime.
