A 36-year-old London man is facing multiple charges, including uttering death threats, after police say a family in the city’s south end was racially targeted on Sunday.
Officers responded to the scene in the area of Ridout Street South and Windsor Avenue after receiving a report of a vehicle driving onto the lawn of a home multiple times, police said.
According to the caller, the vehicle was then observed moving to the driveway of a nearby residence, where “what appeared to be racially motivated signs” were posted in the window, police said.
Police said they went to the man’s home, and while speaking to him, allege he uttered multiple racial threats directed at his neighbour.
Officers attempted to arrest the man, but he resisted and tried to evade custody, police said.
A 36-year-old man is facing multiple charges, including criminal harassment by threatening conduct, uttering threats to cause death, dangerous operation of a conveyance, and resisting arrest.
The accused was to appear in court Tuesday.
“While comments made to the family were racially motivated, it is important to note that there are no specific hate crimes listed in the Criminal Code,” police said in a statement.
“When crimes have underlying hate-related motivation, this information is presented during sentencing and will be taken into account during the judicial process.”
News of the incident comes a day after police announced charges against a 37-year-old man after a family was allegedly assaulted and had racially motivated comments used against them near a northeast London intersection on June 20.
Both come weeks after a London man was arrested and charged with targeting and killing a Muslim family with his truck in the city’s west end, an act prosecutors say was an act of terrorism motivated by hate against the Islamic faith.