Five White Men Charged in Racially Motivated Attack
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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Five white men have been indicted on charges of stabbing a black man and threatening another at a Denny’s restaurant in 2001, federal authorities said Wednesday.
The indictment follows a three-year investigation into a group of white men described by witnesses as wearing T-shirts referring to the white supremacist group Aryan Nation and having swastika tattoos. They are accused of stabbing the man after exchanging words when he and a friend entered the restaurant with two white women.
A three-count federal indictment, handed up by the grand jury on Jan. 26 and unsealed Wednesday, alleged that the men used a knife and threats to prevent Maurice Wilson and Kenny Wright from dining at the Springfield restaurant, and that the men were motivated by race.
Charged in the attack are Steven A. Heldenbrand, 26; Kenneth Francis Johnsen, 27; Mark Thomas Kooms, 27; Michael Shane McCormick, 29; and Michael Angelo Osorio, 23.
A conviction on each federal count would carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
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