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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Hate Crime Charges Filed In Attack At Central District Preschool

posted by on April 15 at 16:48 PM

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18th and Columbia

King County Prosecutors have filed malicious harassment charges against a 25-year-old man who allegedly attacked a teacher at the Kidus Montessori School last week.

According to court documents, David Haas attempted to gain entry to the Lake Washington Girls Middle School on April 10th, but was not allowed inside. In response, he told staff he would “kill all the black people.”

According to court documents, Haas, who is white, then walked about 10 blocks north—onto the playground of the Kidus School—carrying a large metal pole and a brick, and told a teacher supervising a group of 1-3-year-olds that he was “an abomination to the planet. Curse to Africa. Curse to your kind.” Records do not indicate the race of the teacher.

Haas left the playground but as he walked away, he threw the brick at another teacher—Burt Hall—who had been following behind Haas in his car. The brick hit Hall in the arm, bounced and shattered his windshield.

Police were called and Haas was taken in to custody and is being held on $30,000 bail.

Court documents say Haas has prior convictions for felony harassment, DV and assault.

RSS icon Comments

1

Was he wearing a Hillary for President T-Shirt?

Posted by Snarky Remark | April 15, 2008 6:53 PM
2

That sounds less like actual hate to me, and more like severe mental illness. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, mind you.

Posted by Morgan | April 15, 2008 8:15 PM
3

He's probably bitter at the economy and is clinging to his antipathy and his toward other races (and his brick) as a response.

Posted by kinaidos | April 15, 2008 8:29 PM
4

I'm opposed to hate crimes laws, but at least they do give us an excuse to lock up undesirables for longer.

(Similiarly, I'm opposed to drug laws, but at least they also give us an excuse to lock up undesirables for longer.)

Posted by David Wright | April 15, 2008 9:00 PM
5

David Haas? The same David Haas that created the 'Haas' avocado? I heard that guy lives here, and I heard he's rich.

I didn't know he was crazy.

Posted by dan bonzai | April 15, 2008 9:03 PM
6

Nonsense, the Haas Avocado is really the Hass Avocado, named after Rudolph Hess, the notorious nazi war criminal. He claimed to have developed the cultivar in Spandau prison, but conspiracy theorists believe he smuggled it out of Scotland which few people realize is where the avocado originates. In Scotland the avocado is usually ground up and fed to Sheep. Avocado fed yearlings are sought after for their particularly supple flesh. Saddly the Japanese have more or less cornered the market on Avocado fed scotch yearlings, which they use for sushi.

Posted by kinaidos | April 15, 2008 9:21 PM
7

@6: Somebody else who needs to be taking their meds...

Posted by Greg | April 16, 2008 9:01 AM
8

no, 6, i'm pretty sure it's called comedy.

Posted by ellarosa | April 16, 2008 9:35 AM
9

oops, i meant to address that to 7.

Posted by ellarosa | April 16, 2008 9:36 AM
10

I am writing this because I feel it is important for people to know that Dan Haas is severely mentally ill and homeless. This I know to be a fact from a friendship with someone who has known him for many years. His situation is a reflection our mental health system. His family has tried over and over again to get him mental health services and supervision in the system but both the judicial and mental health systems keep kicking him to the curb even when he is known to be a danger to himself and others. Dan does not hate black people; he acts out in hateful ways to everyone and everything that frustrates him. When he was rightfully turned away from using the restroom in the school, he acted out. That is what paranoid schizophrenics with poor rage control do. This is not a story about racism and hate crimes. This is a sad story about untreated mental illness and the impacts it has on the individual’s ability to function in society and the how members of a society are impacted by those individuals. What he did was wrong. But it did not come from a place of racism, it stems from mental illness and a tendency to lash out at anyone and anything that frustrates him. Most of us get frustrated and are able to control our impulses. But this is an individual with untreated severe mental illness that needs help controlling his impulses. It is an example of how untreated mental illness affects the community as a whole and how lack of proper treatment can end in terrible experiences for everyone. I am not dismissing what he did. Rather I am trying to put the situation into context since people seem so interested in discussing it.

Posted by Diane | April 16, 2008 6:02 PM

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