The Aurora Police Department arrested 30-year-old Steve Sinclair this week on hate crime and attempted murder charges after he allegedly yelled “black lives matter!” while stabbing a white man who was trying to run away from him.
“An arrest affidavit says Sinclair used a knife to stab 29-year-old Michael Conner who was transported to the hospital for his injuries and a collapsed lung,” 9News reported. “Conner, a white male, told police while at the hospital that Sinclair, a Black male, shouted ‘Black lives matter!’ prior to stabbing him.”
The local NBC affiliate reported that it was not exactly clear what happened in the moments leading up to the attack but that people who witnessed the attack said that Sinclair approached Connor and said, “I’m going to kill you and your dog.”
“One witness said Conner tried to run away and defended himself with a stick,” the station added. “Sinclair continued saying, ‘Black lives matter’ to police when they arrived according to the first officer on scene. That officer wrote that Sinclair had his hands up and said ‘I stabbed him, I’m a psychopath,’ refused to sit down and ‘insisted’ that officers should shoot him. He was arrested without incident according to the report.”
CBS Denver reported that numerous witnesses saw Sinclair attacking Connor while Connor tried to run away.
“The victim in this case suffered serious injuries and his family says he cannot work for the next 6 weeks while he is recovering from his injuries,” CBS Denver added. “A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family as the victim is the main provider for the family.”
The Sentinel Colorado reported that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) records described the hate crime charge as “felony ethnic intimidation.”
The case comes as racial issues have been at the forefront of U.S. politics for the last three months in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Floyd’s quickly spiraled into violent riots in Minneapolis—which caused over half a billion dollars in damage—and eventually sparked riots in other cities across the country. The riots also led to widespread looting. At the same time, there were legitimate protests going on in cities across the country where protesters demanded police reform and to defund the police. Often times protests that were mostly peaceful during the daytime would turn into violent riots once the sun went down.
New polling shows that the public’s support for Black Lives Matter is rapidly declining as rioting plagues America’s cities.
“A new poll out of Wisconsin shows support for Black Lives Matter protests dropped 13 percentage points between June and early August,” The Washington Examiner reported. “Forty-eight percent of Wisconsin residents support Black Lives Matter protests and 48% disapprove, according to a Marquette Law School poll conducted between Aug. 8 and Aug. 9. The results for approval dropped when compared to numbers from June. Marquette found 61% of residents approved of the movement’s protests from June 14 to June 18, with 36% disapproving.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.