There’s not much that can be said about the ugliness of hate crimes. It’s one thing to spout ignorant, hateful words, but it’s another thing when it results in death.
By David Kelly
Los Angeles Times
YERMO, Calif. — Hadie Mohd last saw his father as he headed out to the family’s vacated home to paint over anti-Arab and white supremacist graffiti scrawled across the walls inside.
“He said he would be back before sundown,” Mohd said. “And he always kept his word.”
But when sundown came, Ali Abdelhadi Mohd had not returned. About 9:45 p.m. on June 27, neighbors in this scruffy high-desert town heard an explosion they said sounded like a sonic boom. Flames engulfed the single-story home. When firefighters arrived, they found a horribly burned Mohd dead among the ruins.
“We can only hope he died quickly,” Hadie Mohd said as he picked his way through the gray ashes and blackened appliances at the house Thursday. “It gives us peace to think that.”
