An Oregon man vomiting anti-Islamic slanders destroyed a convenience store and threatened to kill his clerk in an ugly confrontation captured on viral video, officials said on Monday.
Brian Christopher Miller, 43, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree criminal damage and third-degree theft, both crimes, according to prison records from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
Miller, from Portland, was arrested on Friday night before being released on his own bail on Saturday, prison records showed.
Miller could be hit with more charges, including hate crimes, when he appears in a Portland courtroom late Monday afternoon, a spokesman for the Multnomah County Public Ministry said.
Seemab Hussaini, vice president of the Oregon section of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he had contacted the secretary’s relatives, who do not understand why Miller was not immediately charged with a crime of prejudice.
“When this man was arrested, they (the clerk’s family) did not know that he was being released so quickly,” Hussaini told NBC News. “And the charges don’t recognize the violence that the victim has been subjected to. What really disturbs the family is the impossibility of recognizing the true nature of the crime, at least for the time being ”.
The clerk, an elderly citizen and an immigrant from Afghanistan, filmed the incident before his son posted it on YouTube, Hussaini said.
The footage showed a man without a mask with a strong resemblance to Miller tipping monitors, damaging the cash register, breaking down Covid-19 protective barriers, throwing food at the clerk and shouting, “I’m going to shoot you in the back.”
“Is this how we do things in America, Afghan? Al Qaeda? Osama?” the threatening man said. “I don’t want your shitty cigarettes right now, man. But here we call the exchange system. Five shit dollars? You can owe me, you can owe me.
And he was, as the police arrested Miller outside the Chevron convenience store, officials said.
By the time he was sued in custody, Miller had lost his shirt and was bare-chested while a prison photographer took the backup photo.
“Mr. Miller arrived (to prison) shirtless,” said Multnomah County Sheriff’s Communications Director Chris Liedle. “During the booking process, he did not cooperate, became intoxicated and made threatening self-mutilation statements. After completing the booking process, he received a protective apron and was placed in a cell under surveillance.”
Miller did not return several voice mails and text messages asking for comment on Monday.
The clerk’s family is grateful that a customer outside the store called 911 and a dispatcher worked quickly to bring the police to the scene, Hussaini said. The attack occurred two days before the victim’s 42-year-old daughter died suddenly of sepsis, according to Hussaini.
“It has been a very stressful time for him,” said Hussaini.
Ali Gostanian contributed.