Racially Motivated Assault Results in a 4-Year Sentence

A white man was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for a racially motivated assault against a black man.

Walter Dean, 30, who also goes by the name of Walter McNarney, pulled a knife on a black man who was accompanied by a white woman near a 7-Eleven store in Ocean Beach on April 28.

Dean, of San Diego, pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and to depriving the black man of his civil rights.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Luis Aragon said Dean was a member of a white supremacy group while he was in prison before. Two of his three previous convictions involved pulling a knife on someone, said Aragon. Dean was on parole when the attack occurred.

Dean yelled racial epithets at the man and has “a strong anti-black” belief, Aragon said. The couple were not physically injured, the prosecutor told San Diego Superior Court Judge Thomas Whelan but now feel a new concern about being in public places.

“This is an issue that affects all of us,” Aragon said.

Neither victim was in court.