What to Know
- A crossing guard helping elementary school children was threatened by a driver who used racist slurs, he told police.
- The driver said he was a former Marine who "used to shoot people like him at the border," a police report says.
- D.C. police are investigating the incident as a hate crime and searching for the driver.
A school crossing guard working to protect children on their way home in D.C. was threatened Monday by a driver who yelled anti-Hispanic slurs and said he would kill him, the crossing guard told police.
D.C. police are searching for the aggressor in the incident classified as a suspected hate crime.
The crossing guard was working near Lafayette Elementary School in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, about a half-mile east of the Maryland border, about 3:50 p.m. Monday when a man in a blue Nissan started shouting at him, he told police.
The driver used an anti-Hispanic slur, said the crossing guard was an immigrant and said he "did not belong working in this area around white kids," a police report says.
The driver threatened to shoot or run over the crossing guard, and claimed he was a former Marine who "used to shoot people like him at the border," the report says.
The driver drove away, did a U-turn and returned to continue to threaten and berate the crossing guard.
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Resident Lily Buerkle said she heard the man yell at the crossing guard.
"I heard him say, 'I should just run you over,'" she said.
The driver then threatened to shoot people, including children, nearby at Broad Branch Market.
On Tuesday, officers provided extra security near Lafayette Elementary. The crossing guard was temporarily reassigned to another school.
D.C. police released a brief video Wednesday showing a vehicle of interest. It's a dark-colored Nissan Murano with the California license plate DLR890651, police said. The suspect is a black man who is at least 50 and stands 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10.
People who live in the area were alarmed to read in the police report what the crossing guard said.
"It's sad to know there are people in our community who have those views and express them so freely," one woman said.
