The Irvine man was charged with a hate crime against a Latino man, allegedly throwing racial slander and punching an elderly man by throwing hot coffee at one man.
Robert Tackett, a 54-year-old Irvine resident, has been charged with a fatal weapon other than a firearm, a felony of civil rights violation, a felony of felony, a felony of felony that could cause serious bodily injury, and a felony of injuring an elderly person.
If convicted, he will face up to eight years in state prisons, officials said. He is being held on $500,000 bail at the Orange County Jail.
According to the release, Tackett had “negative interactions with a garbage truck driver,” and the incident was filmed by another driver. Tackett is said to have followed the driver who filmed him and tried to drive him off the road and hit him in a car, screaming “anti-Hispanic racial slur.”
Tackett reportedly tried to crash twice on the driver’s vehicle and tossed hot coffee at the car and the driver. The driver did not call police but was identified after posting a video on social media.
In the video obtained by KTLA5, a man later identified as Tackett was seen driving a white work van and swinging it around in the lane of a driver who was filming the video.
In the second incident on the same day, around 5:30pm, Tackett is accused of stopping by Westminster Stoplight and punching the 72-year-old driver through the window of a pickup truck before leaving the van.
Another driver recorded the suspicious attack and called the Irvine Police Department after watching a video of the first attack on social media, officials said.
Tackett was arrested on the California Highway Patrol on July 24th with the Mammoth, officials said.
“Hate is a poison that poisons everything, and everyone. It touches on. An attack motivated by hatred is not an attack on a single individual. It is an attack on the very structure of our society and our community as a whole,” Orange County said. Atty. Released by Todd Spitzer.
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