Itzel Lopez Torrance hate crime: Rachelle Nicole Howell & Greg Cunningham identified as white couple racially harassing Mexican woman & her black boyfriend in California.
A white couple in California have are the subject of a hate crime investigation after they were caught on video screaming ‘only white lives matter’ and doing a Nazi salute in front of a Mexican woman and her black boyfriend after tailing them in their pickup truck.
Itzel Lopez, 25, says she and her boyfriend were driving home from a restaurant after her birthday dinner in Torrance, just outside Los Angeles, Wednesday night when they spotted the truck following them.
They said the couple followed them for several miles before overtaking them and stopping at a traffic light. Social media has since identified the couple as Greg Cunningham and Rachelle Nicole Howell.
Lopez said the white couple got out of their truck and started hurling racist remarks at them.
She started filming as the woman approached her car and yelled: ‘White lives matter b***h’ while flipping her off.
Nazi salute! California couple arrested in hate crime against mixed race couple
Racists in Torrance, California harass a black couple at a red light by saying “only white lives matter” & doing a Nazi salute before damaging their vehicle pic.twitter.com/YpL5SyANSA
— 💫 (@RacistSpotlight) July 23, 2020
As the woman walked away she screamed: ‘Only white lives matter b***h.’
Meanwhile, the man approached from the other side and waved before throwing his arm into a Nazi salute.
Lopez’s boyfriend could be heard in the background saying ‘That’s white power‘ before Lopez added ‘Crazy the sh*t we have to go through in 2020’.
Police are now investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Following the confrontation, the white couple get back in their truck only to reemerge just moments later.
The woman came back with her cellphone and tried to film Lopez and her boyfriend.
The man got out of the truck and retrieved a pole before striking their car repeatedly as they drove off.
‘Why were they doing it? They don’t know us.’
The victims’ car was left with a dent and scratch.
The couple say they have no idea why the pair followed or targeted them.
‘We were just in shock. We didn’t know what was going. Why were they doing it? They don’t know us. They were being really mean and racist,’ Lopez told KTLA.
‘I was afraid. I didn’t know what they had in their car. I just wanted to get home.
‘When he came out the car, he had something and was hitting the car,’ Lopez said.
Lopez can be heard screaming, telling her boyfriend to drive away.
‘We want to get justice because it’s not right’
Lopez says the incident took an emotional toll on her.
‘It really threw me off. Never in my life did I think I was gonna experience this,’ she said. ‘It’s actually really scary. They don’t even know you and they’re willing to hurt you. It’s sad.’
‘We want to get justice because it’s not right. I don’t want them to just go freely and continue to do this to someone else.’
Lopez and her boyfriend were able to record the truck’s license plate number and report it to police, and they posted it on social media. People online were quick to identify the couple by name.
Posted one social media user, ‘Their Instagrams are @ _misfit666 & @ _fitsthedescription_ . Their names are Rachelle Nicole Howell and Greg Cunningham. Do what you want with this information.’
To date no arrests have been made as police continue to investigate.
