OLYMPIA, Wash. – Police say a man who told police he was part of a white supremacist group stabbed an interracial couple outside a bar in Olympia in a case that has garnered national media attention.
Daniel B. Rowe is jailed on $500,000 bail on investigation for assault and malicious harassment.
Olympia police spokeswoman Laura Wohl says Rowe approached the couple Tuesday night and without speaking, stabbed the 47-year-old black man in the abdomen and also knifed his 35-year-old white girlfriend. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
The male victim was able to chase the 32-year-old suspect, who fell and was knocked unconscious.
Police say the attack appears to be unprovoked and that Rowe reportedly made racists statements to officers.
The Olympian newspaper reports (http://goo.gl/cBbNlO) that Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler said in court Wednesday it “has all the hallmarks of a hate crime.”
Public defender Christian Cabrera says Rowe recently moved to the Olympia area after living in Richland.