White Supremacist Couple Accused of Slaying Black Vet at a Gas Station
On the evening of March 15, Justin Peoples pulled into a Chevron gas station in Tracy, California, a town about sixty miles east of San Francisco.
The 30-year-old father-of-two was a Navy veteran who lived in nearby Stockton; he was described by his father, Maurice Peoples, as a “remarkable young man.” But inside the gas station, just before 9 p.m., Peoples was shot and stabbed. As reported by the Tracy Press, he was rushed to a hospital where he died hours later.
In the early stages of the investigation, Tracy police determined that Peoples did nothing to provoke the attack that left him dead, and described it as a “senseless act of violence.” The morning after the killing, police arrested Christine Garner, 42, of Manteca, and Jeremy Jones, 49, of Stockton. Then last Friday, investigators alleged a motive: alongside a murder charge, the white couple was charged with a hate crime for killing the young Black father.