Prosecutors charged a Colorado man with a misdemeanor hate crime charge after he allegedly targeted two young adults of Asian descent with racist and homophobic comments last week while recording a food review TikTok video at an Indian restaurant. -N-Out Burger in Northern California.
The incident occurred on December 24 in the city of San Ramón, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The viral video, which now has more than 4 million views, prompted police to open an investigation.
Jordan Douglas Krah, 40, of Denver, was arrested Monday and prosecutors filed charges against him Thursday. Attempts to contact Krah on Friday were unsuccessful. It was not immediately clear if he had retained an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Krah faces one count of hate crime in the In-N-Out Burger case, as well as one count of misdemeanor assault for a separate incident the next day in Danville when he confronted a man in a mall parking lot and spat at him. the prosecutors said. .
According to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, the victim in the assault case did not involve a “recognizable protected class” who could have filed an additional hate crime charge.
Krah posted bail and is due in court on February 1. He faces a maximum sentence of one year and six months if he is convicted on both counts.
“A threat to one ethnic community is a threat to all communities,” Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said in a news release. “There is no place for hate crimes in Contra Costa County.” Krah also faces charges in a vehicular assault case in Colorado, and authorities will seek to extradite him, the district attorney’s office said.
In the video, the camera turns on the two young men as they eat French fries and an order known as “The Flying Dutchman.” A male voice can be heard asking them if they are filming themselves eating, before making a homophobic comment.
Later, a male voice can be heard asking one of the diners if he is Japanese or Korean. The diner replies that they are Korean, leading the man to make comments about Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. The other diner then urges the first to stop associating with the man, who threatens to spit in the diners’ faces. He keeps making racist and offensive comments.
After the video was posted online, police detectives contacted the victims and launched an investigation that led to Krah’s arrest.
The viral video follows a rise in hate incidents against people of Asian descent during the pandemic and a rise in hateful rhetoric toward LGBTQ people online.
