2 Men Plead Not Guilty in Alleged Racist Attack

Two Antelope Valley men who allegedly beat and tried to drive over a black Lancaster man in a racist attack were arraigned at Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday.

They pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Shaun Broderick, 19, and Christopher Crawford, 25, are accused of attacking Nathaniel Harris, 20, in the Lancaster Wal-Mart parking lot Tuesday night. The two are members of the Nazi Low Riders, a white supremacist gang in the Antelope Valley, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The attack was allegedly sparked when Harris approached Broderick’s girlfriend, asking if he knew her from high school. Prosecutors say Broderick then attacked Harris with a hammer, spewing racial epithets and threatening to kill him. When the two fell to the ground fighting, Crawford allegedly hit and kicked Harris. After the fight, prosecutors say, the two men tried to run over Harris as they sped from the parking lot in a car, an act that prompted the second count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Broderick and Crawford face sentences of 25 years to life if convicted of the attempted murder charge. The pair could face additional prison time if prosecutors prove the incident was a hate crime. Bail has been set at $1 million for each man.

Also Friday, Broderick and another man, Dennis Butt, 21, pleaded not guilty to charges of drug manufacturing and possession. Police, conducting a search after the attack on Harris, allegedly found a small crystal methamphetamine lab in two Lancaster-area motel rooms where the men had been staying. Prosecutors noted that Butt was not involved in the attack on Harris and have not determined if he had ties to the white supremacist movement.

Tuesday’s attack came on the heels of a news conference last week attended by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, Sheriff Lee Baca and other high-ranking county officials that focused on the fight against intolerance in Antelope Valley. The area has seen a rise in racially motivated crime since the mid-1990s.

Det. Brian Schoonmaker of the Lancaster sheriff’s office said Tuesday’s incident was the seventh alleged hate crime reported in Lancaster this year and the first assault.