Civil Rights Charge Filed in Shooting of Black Woman

A criminal civil rights charge was filed here Thursday against a Hesperia man who allegedly wounded an elderly black woman in the stomach when he fired a high-powered rifle twice into her family’s home.

Gary D. McInnis, 39, was charged in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana with a single felony count of using intimidation to interfere with housing rights on account of race. The crime carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Wearing a full beard, his long, brown hair in a ponytail, McInnis appeared briefly in court before Magistrate Ronald R. Rose, who ordered him held without bail after concluding he was an escape risk and a danger to others.

“This is one of the worst allegations of racial animus I have seen,” said H. Dean Steward, a federal public defender assigned to represent McInnis. “This is the first case of its type for our office in Santa Ana and certainly the first one for us involving a gunshot.”

McInnis is accused of shooting his neighbor, Oleatha Keller, on Jan. 26 at her Hesperia home in San Bernardino County. The criminal complaint alleges that McInnis, who was either drunk or high on drugs at the time, opened fire on Keller’s house because she is black.

Court records state that when San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrived in the neighborhood after the shooting, McInnis yelled racial epithets and said: “Hey, come and get me.”

A neighbor told authorities that the day after the shooting, McInnis’ 16-year-old son visited him and told him details about the shooting, according to the complaint. “My dad took a gun and shot the neighbor’s house” and “hit a lady,” the neighbor quoted the boy as saying.

Subsequent searches of McInnis’ home found items suggesting that the incident was race-related, according to the FBI. Sheriff’s deputies said they found swastikas, insignia of a white supremacist group, signs with racial remarks written on them, and figurines of blacks and a monkey hanging by their necks from nooses of rope and chain.

One was the head of a Mr. T doll with sunglasses hanging from a workshop ceiling, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. Mr. T is a black TV actor.

Deputies said McInnis’ garage contained military equipment, including a mortar that had been fired and a non-functional hand grenade. Also confiscated were two high-powered rifles, two shotguns, a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition.

Court records show that laboratory tests of bullet fragments removed from Keller’s abdomen during surgery came from one of the rifles seized at McInnis’ home. Keller has since recovered.

An FBI spokesman in Los Angeles said that at least half the racial incidents reported to the bureau involve physical violence and injuries, although shootings are unusual. The charge against McInnis also is part of a growing number of reports involving hundreds of race-related crimes.

Last year, the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations alone reported 167 race- related crimes in 1989, a record number and an increase of 75% over 1988. The commission said those incidents resulted in 90 arrests.

Steward said the case against McInnis was first filed as an assault case in San Bernardino County Municipal Court, but then referred to federal authorities because of possible violations of Keller’s civil rights. Federal agents arrested McInnis at the Victorville Courthouse on Thursday morning.