A 51-year-old African-American man was found guilty of three hate crimes on Wednesday after he attacked two Mexican men with a metal pipe and tried to attack another in November 2018. Alan Covington was convicted of walking into a Salt Lake City tire store on Nov. 27, 2018 and hitting an employee, 18-year-old Luis Lopez, in the head with a metal bar. When Lopez’s father rushed over to help his son, Covington hit the father’s back. When Lopez’s uncle tried to intervene, Covington also tried to hit him with the pipe. Prior to the attack, Covington yelled to the employees that he wanted to “kill Mexicans.” He was arrested near the tire store with the metal bar and a hatchet in his possession.
Lopez reportedly had a metal plate installed in his face after Covington smashed his cheekbone in the attack. Prosecutors claimed that Covington had been hunting for “Mexicans for days” around the city. He faces life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Read it at The Salt Lake TribunencG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEnZiipKmXsqK%2F02eaqKVflrmiuoycpq%2BhnpzBsLqMn6auppRitLa1y62wZqeWYrWiwMRmmquhnZrAbq3FrZyrZZGpwaKvyqKloGWlqa6pecWapKKkqWKxpq%2FLmqmippditaZ51pqlrZ2UYsGwecqio6VlnZrFqq%2FAp6o%3D