Syrian refugee, 17, attacked on San Diego trolley by man shouting slurs, police say
Assault comes amid spate of Islamophobic hate crimes in southern California, advocates say
A 17-year-old Syrian refugee was attacked on a trolley in San Diego by a man yelling anti-Arab slurs, according to advocates and police, who say the assault was the latest in a series of Islamophobic hate crimes in southern California.
The high school student was returning home from school on Tuesday afternoon when a man approached and asked, “Where are you from? Are you Mexican?”, according to the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (Pana), a community organization assisting the victim. When the teenager said he was Arab, the man assaulted him while shouting anti-Arab and Islamophobic slurs, injuring his face and eye, the group said.