Fatal Stabbing of Black Student in Maryland Investigated as a Hate Crime - New York Times

Law enforcement officials in Maryland said on Monday they would not determine whether the fatal stabbing of a black college student was a hate crime until after a homicide investigation had been completed. They urged the public to remain patient while they continued to investigate a case that has attracted wide public interest.

Prosecutors said Sean C. Urbanski, a white 22-year-old University of Maryland student and a member of a racist Facebook group, stabbed Richard W. Collins III, 23, in the chest at a campus bus stop in the early hours of Saturday. He was charged with assault and first- and second-degree murder on Sunday.

Mr. Collins was a recently commissioned United States Army second lieutenant and student at Bowie State University in Bowie, Md. He was supposed to graduate on Tuesday, according to a statement from the University of Maryland.

Over the weekend, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it was evaluating the killing as a possible hate crime, a statement that helped fuel public outrage over the killing of Mr. Collins, especially online. At a news conference on Monday, Hank Stawinski, the Prince George’s County police chief, asked the public to be patient.

“I know people are hurting,” he said. “I know there are appearances. I know people are drawing conclusions. I know social media works in its own way.”

Angela D. Alsobrooks, the state’s attorney for Prince George’s County, told reporters on Monday that prosecutors would not classify the killing as a hate crime until a homicide investigation had been completed and its results were reviewed by the F.B.I.

“I can tell you that at this early stage in this investigation, we do not have enough evidence to say conclusively whether this is a hate crime,” ” she said at a news conference.

“We need something probably more than just a Facebook posting. We want to make sure that we are very thorough before we make those conclusions,” she said.

Ms. Alsobrooks said on Monday that Mr. Urbanski was being held without bond because prosecutors believed he was a danger to the community. Addressing speculation about a hate crime charge, she said the uneasy national mood had heightened tensions surrounding the case.

“These are painful times, and none of us can deny it. The climate that we live in now is one that people are very concerned — we are concerned,” she said. “If the evidence leads us to conclude that this was a hate crime then we will have no hesitation handling it as such.”

David Mitchell, chief of the University of Maryland Police Department, told The Baltimore Sun that Mr. Urbanski, of Severna Park, Md., was a member of the Facebook group “Alt-Reich Nation,” whose page contained racist posts.

“When I look at the information that’s contained on that website, suffice it to say that it’s despicable,” he told The Sun. “It shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, persons of Jewish faith and especially African-Americans.”

Ms. Alsobrooks said Mr. Collins was with two friends near a bus stop on campus around 3 a.m. on Saturday when they heard Mr. Urbanski screaming and saw him approach. Mr. Urbanski told Mr. Collins to move. When Mr. Collins said no, Mr. Urbanski stabbed him in the chest, she said.

She said the suspect and the victim did not know each other and described Mr. Urbanski as “a person who stabs a perfect stranger at a bus stop.”

When officers from the university police department arrived, they found Mr. Collins on the sidewalk with serious injuries. He was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead, the police said in a statement. Prince George’s County Police stopped a person in the area who was identified by witnesses as Mr. Urbanski, the police said.

In a statement, Wallace D. Loh, the president of the University of Maryland, called the act a “horrific assault” that “has shocked, saddened and angered our community and beyond.”

“We must all do more to nurture a climate — on campus and beyond — where we stand against hate, we fight against hate crimes, and we reaffirm the values that define us a university and as a democracy,” Mr. Loh said.

Chief Mitchell said the attack had spread fear across the university.

“If I’m a person of color, I would certainly look at this as something that could happen to me,” he said, according to The Associated Press.

The University of Maryland has recently been the site of episodes of racism.

In March, fliers printed with white supremacy messages were found at the campus in College Park, Md., for the third time in three months, The Washington Post reported.

“It is your civic duty to report any and all illegal aliens,” one flier said, The Post reported. “They are criminals. America is a white nation.” Another said, “Carry the torch of your people.” The fliers listed a link to the website of Vanguard America, a group associated with the white supremacy movement.

In April, the university police said they were investigating the discovery of a noose in the kitchen of the Phi Kappa Tau chapter on Fraternity Row as a hate or bias crime. Detectives interviewed members of the fraternity and reviewed video from cameras in the area, but the footage “revealed nothing of evidentiary value,” the department said.

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