Authorities in Washington are trying to locate a driver who witnesses say intentionally backed over two young men at a campsite on Saturday after shouting racial slurs—killing one and injuring the other, local ABC affiliate KOMO News reports.
Over the weekend, James "Jimmy" Smith-Kramer—a member of the Quinault Indian Nation—had reportedly trekked out to the Donkey Creek Campground near Hoquiam, Washington, to celebrate his 20th birthday with a few friends. At about 1:30 AM on Saturday, a man in a white Chevrolet pickup truck pulled up to the campsite and began "spinning doughnuts and driving aggressively," Lieutenant Brad Johansson, of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office, told the Seattle Times.
According to a press release from the Quinault Nation, the driver started "screaming racial slurs and war whoops" at Smith-Kramer's group, before intentionally backing over Smith-Kramer and his friend Harvey Anderson, 19. At one point, someone threw a rock at the truck, though police and witnesses dispute whether that happened before or after the driver hit the two young men. Those at the scene also said they heard a woman in the car screaming for the driver to stop before he backed over Smith-Kramer and Anderson and sped away.
"The witnesses there felt [the driver] was intentionally trying to run these subjects over," Johansson said. "This was willful."
Anderson was released from Tacoma General Hospital on Sunday after being treated for his injuries, but Smith-Kramer died at the hospital Saturday night. Now authorities are trying to find the unidentified suspect, who's wanted for murder, and find out whether or not the incident was racially-motivated.
"Our entire Tribe is distraught over this incident," Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Nation, said in a statement. "We work hard to be good friends with our neighboring communities. If it is, in fact, determined that this was a hate crime it will add even more distress and sadness to our loss of this outstanding young man and the injury of the other."
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