Defendant Aqweel Akbar Khan to be charged with additional hate crime
OAKLAND, CA — Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Y. Price announces that the Alameda District Attorney’s office has moved to amend a complaint in the attempted murder case of defendant Aqweel Akbar Khan with an additional hate crime enhancement.
“We are here to right a great wrong,” said DA Price, at today’s press conference, highlighting the failure of the previous administration to charge the defendant with an additional hate crime enhancement, given the heinous evidence of such a crime. Reporters were allowed to view the graphic video depicting the violent attack.
On December 6, 2021, Fremont Police responded to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon in a parking lot on Fremont Boulevard. Police learned that Defendant Khan had intentionally used his vehicle to ram and run over the victim, a 45-year-old African American male, six times. The incident was caught on camera. It is for this incident that DA Price is seeking to add the additional hate crime enhancement.
The male victim miraculously survived the incident but sustained major injuries to his body from being run over repeatedly. The victim reported that Defendant Khan had tried to run over him in the past while yelling a racial slur at him. The victim also suspected that Defendant Khan vandalized his vehicle with racist slurs.
“Hate has no home in Alameda County,” said DA Price. “The message that we have for the residents of Alameda County is that hate crimes will not be tolerated in this county.”
She commended the Fremont Police for their prompt apprehension of Defendant Khan and their repeated requests that the attack against the African American man be properly charged as a hate crime.
Defendant Khan is also charged with a hate crime in the same information based on a prior incident involving a female victim on August 26, 2021, in Fremont near Lake Elizabeth. The defendant approached her, and cursed her, and made comments about the victim speaking to her brother in Hindi. He punched the victim several times, causing her to fall on the ground and lose consciousness.
Khan was initially charged in 2021 with one count of attempted murder for the second incident. He was also charged with two counts assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism over $400, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury. There were special allegations including felony hate crime, use of a deadly weapon, and great bodily injury for the first incident involving a Hindu woman, but similar charges were missing for the African American man. Honorable Judge Kimberly Coldwell held the defendant to answer on these charges in a preliminary hearing in April 2022.
The case was scheduled for a pretrial hearing on March 7th, and was continued to April 14, 2023. The District Attorney is moving to amend the charges before that date.
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