An angry white 57-year-old man drove his pickup truck into a group of picnickers at a Chicago park Saturday evening after complaining about their dogs, calling them “yuppies” and hurling an anti-Asian racial slur at one of them, the Washington Post reports.
On Monday, Timothy Nielsen was charged with four counts of attempted murder for the attack, which pinned a woman under his truck until rescue workers were able to free her. The group, including a pregnant woman, scattered as the truck crashed into the people, seated in camping chairs. One other person was struck by the pickup. Nielsen is being held without bail.
A neighbor reported that on Saturday, Nielsen had stopped his truck in front of a his house to tell the neighbor that he was annoyed with “yuppies on the boulevard out with their dogs,” and to “watch what I’m going to do.”
Nielsen then approached the group of ten celebrating a birthday at Logan Square. He complained that their dogs were misbehaving and was becoming increasingly hostile. One person in the group, an Asian-American, told Nielsen that his “comments were uninvited” and waved him away.
Nielsen responded by yelling at him “fucking Asians” or “goddamn Asians.” Nielsen then back his truck up a few feet, put it into drive and sped toward the group. Only one tire made it over the curb, so Nielsen gunned the engine to get the car onto the park green and drove at the group.
“He ran over a bike, he ran over a chair, he ran over a couple other bikes, and I didn’t see exactly how he hit the cooler and hit her but she ended up under the vehicle,” one of the group told WLS-TV, referencing the 42-year-old woman who was seriously injured.