Shooting of Black Man Possibly Not a Hate Crime

Reports of a string of hate crimes in the Antelope Valley continued to unravel Thursday, as authorities said the shooting of an African American by a group of Latinos might not have been racially motivated.

“There’s no question he was shot,” said Det. Steven Lankford of the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station. “But I question whether it was a hate crime.”

It was the second such revelation this week.

On Wednesday, a 15-year-old African American from Lancaster admitted he lied when he told authorities that a group of racist skinheads beat him up. In fact, he picked a fight with two black high school acquaintances and lied to his mother about the fight to avoid punishment, police said.

Then, Lankford said, the shooting victim expressed doubts that he was targeted because of his race. Jason Burt Taylor, 32, told the detective that he confronted one of his assailants at a grocery store a few days before he was shot.

“They had words, but he doesn’t know who they are,” Lankford said.

Initially, authorities said Taylor did not recognize his attackers.

Taylor, who originally told authorities his name was Kevin Naylor, said he was walking near his Littlerock home Monday night when four young Latino men in a white car pulled alongside him.

Taylor, who speaks Spanish, said the men shouted racial epithets in Spanish and shot him in the buttocks. He was briefly hospitalized, but was home Thursday.

No witnesses to the shooting had been located as of Thursday.

“Were these guys looking for someone to shoot just out of hatred? Probably not,” said Lankford. “It probably had more to do with drugs or something like that.”

Taylor denied he was involved in any illegal activity, Lankford said.

But Lankford said Taylor has a long criminal history and an outstanding arrest warrant in a $15,000 child support case.

He also has about seven aliases, Lankford said, and has given authorities false names at least twice.

Deputies continued to investigate another possible hate crime that occurred between Sunday and Monday when vandals scrawled hate symbols on the front door of Temple Beth Knesset Bamidbar, the Antelope Valley’s only synagogue.

Hate crimes declined last year in the Antelope Valley, but racial relations remain a challenge, community leaders said. According to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Board, the region has a disproportionate number of hate crimes relative to its population.