Brian Christopher Miller, Portland, Oregon man charged with bias crimes after hate filled rage against Muslim gas station worker caught on video.
An Oregon man caught on video going on a racist expletive laden rage at a Muslim gas station worker has been charged with a slew of bias crimes, prosecutors said.
Brian Christopher Miller, 43, is facing multiple counts of first- and second-degree bias crime in Friday’s attack at a Chevron gas station in southeast Portland, where video shows he threatened to kill a Muslim man originally from Afghanistan.
Brian Miller, of Portland, who at the time of his Friday arrest, was also charged with burglary, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, criminal trespass, robbery and theft in the onslaught recorded by the 68-year-old victim, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced.
The additional hate crime charges were added Monday afternoon, where under Oregon law are listed as bias charges.
‘According to court documents, Miller entered the store after being involved in a disturbance outside in the parking lot,’ Schmidt said in a Monday statement. ‘While inside the store, Miller yelled at and used racial hate speech toward the employee based on his perception of the victim’s religion, national origin and his race and skin color.’
‘Is that how we do things in America, Afghan?’
The footage shows a mask-less Miller yelling at the employee for several minutes and damaging the cash register, ripping down COVID-19 protection barriers along with tossing items at him at the defenseless man before going behind the counter as the frightened immigrant makes his way into a back room.
‘Is that how we do things in America, Afghan?’ Miller initially asked the employee, video shows. ‘Al Qaeda? Osama? Huh, is it? You scared? … I’ll grab that f–king camera right out of your f–cking hand, dude. I don’t like cameras.’
Miller then suggested the victim upload the footage to YouTube — to tell ‘em what America has done with you unholy immigrants,’ according to the now viral clip.
‘And I’ll f–king shoot you in the back,’ Miller also threatened, footage showed.
Seemab Hussaini, vice chairman of Oregon’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, (CAIR) told KGW he has met with the victim’s relatives, who relayed that he’s traumatized by the attack but is back at work.
‘It’s difficult, it’s painful,’ Hussaini told KGW. ‘You have an immigrant family that arrived here in the early ’80s. You feel like American when you’re treated like an other.
Hussaini said he asked the man’s family what ‘justice’ in the case would mean to them.
‘They’re like, ‘People need help,’’ Hussaini recalled. ”Who knows what’s wrong with this man, but this man has hate in his heart. How do you stop that?”
Miller had been scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday at 2 p.m after being released on his own recognizance a day after his arrest on Friday, FOX12 reported.
