CINCINNATI (WXIX) – It’s been a week since police charged 33-year-old Daniel Beckjord after he allegedly opened fire into an Evendale grocery store, court documents say.
Beckjord pulled up in his vehicle to Tokyo Oriental Foods Shop on Reading Road and fired several rounds into the glass with a Glock handgun, according to the criminal complaint.
After the first few rounds, witnesses in the parking lot say they saw Beckjord walk around the building and begin shooting again. An affidavit says nine people hid in a locked bathroom at a nearby restaurant during the shooting. No one was hurt.
Beckjord allegedly told his arresting officers, among other statements police described as nonsensical, that he was “the president of Tokyo.”
While executing search warrants, police claim to have found bulletproof vests and a cache of ammunition and rifles.
Evendale Police Chief Tim Holloway said the day of the shooting there was no evidence currently to suggest the shooting was ethnically motivated.
Organizations across Greater Cincinnati want Holloway and federal authorities to take a second look.
“He chose the time and place,” attorney Charleston Wang said. “The time was the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated in Japan and China.”
Wang represents the Interethnic Council of Greater Cincinnati. The council recently sent a letter to Evendale Police Chief Tim Holloway asking that the investigation “include a search for evidence of a hate crime under Ohio law” and “if such evidence is found, appropriate charges must be filed.”
It continues: “We want to express gratitude and convey our appreciation of the diligence of the Evendale Police Department and hope it will set an example for all other police units in our community. And we commend the arrest and continuing investigation by Evendale Police to other concerned communities, including Asian American organizations.”
Ohio broadly defines hate crimes as acts, from vandalism to arson to murder, motivated by prejudice…
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