Pasco County deputies are investigating an attack outside a Walmart as a hate crime. It happened around 3 a.m. Wednesday at the Walmart at 1575 Land O'Lakes Blvd in Lutz.

Deputies say a man and a woman in their 20s were heading out to their car in the parking lot. Another man, also in his 20s, approached them and asked them a series of questions.

"The first question to the male was 'are you of Middle Eastern descent?'" explained Doug Tobin, spokesman for the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. Tobin said the male victim responded, "No, I'm not."

Then the man asked another question: "Are you Muslim?" The victim again responded, "No, I'm not a Muslim."

Deputies say the suspect then yelled a racial slur, alluding to the fact the victim was "with a white woman." Then the man pulled out a BB or air soft gun.

"The suspect shot about 20 rounds of this air soft/Pellet gun, toward our victims. Fortunately, they weren't seriously hurt. But it's a serious crime," Tobin said.

The man was hit twice in the face. He was treated on the scene and released, and the woman he was with was not hurt.

Surveillance cameras caught the attack. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is working with Walmart to get that video.

A shopper and a store employee witnessed the attack and told deputies the man ran off towards Dale Mabry Highway. A K-9 picked up his scent but lost it at the road. So it's unclear if a car was waiting nearby for the man.

The sheriff's office is asking for the public's help. "If someone may have said something, like if this person bragged about what he'd done to someone else, we ask for them to step forward and call our Pasco County Sheriff's Office," Tobin said.

Their tip line is 800-706-2488.

The suspect is described as between 18 and 30 years old, with blond, short hair, about six feet tall, weighing around 180 pounds, wearing blue jeans, a brown jacket and green sandals.

The Council on American Islamic Relations released a statement this afternoon urging local Muslims to be cautious.

MyFox Tampa Bay, 3 January 2013

See also "CAIR asks FBI to probe shooting of 'Middle Eastern' man in Fla.", CAIR press release, 2 January 2013

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil liberties organization, said today that it is calling on the SUBWAY restaurant chain to apologize to a Louisiana Muslim allegedly locked out of a sandwich shop in that state because of his faith.

A retired 63-year-old U.S. citizen of South Asian heritage who lives in New Orleans reported to CAIR that on November 21, 2012, he and his wife stopped at the SUBWAY restaurant in Shreveport, La. Before ordering, they went to the restrooms in the facility. The husband exited the restroom first and went outside the restaurant to wait for his wife in anticipation of re-entering to order their food.

While his wife was still inside the restaurant, the victim attempted to re-enter, but was blocked at the door by a female SUBWAY employee who allegedly asked him "Are you Muslim?" When the victim replied that he is indeed Muslim, the SUBWAY employee reportedly responded, "We can't serve you." The employee then went inside the restaurant and locked the door behind her. Fearing for his wife's safety and distraught at the violation of his civil rights, the man called 911.

When the Shreveport Police Department arrived, an officer went inside the SUBWAY restaurant and later came out to tell the victim that the manager was "scared" of him and that he "better leave."

[NOTE: The victim is 5'6" and weighs approximately 155 pounds. He wears an Islamic cap, called a "kufi," and a beard for religious reasons. His wife, a teacher, wears an Islamic headscarf, or "hijab."]

In a letter to SUBWAY President and CEO Fred DeLuca, CAIR National Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili wrote in part:

"Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2247 states that it is a 'discriminatory practice for a person to deny an individual the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of a place of public accommodation, resort, or amusement, as defined in this Chapter, on the grounds of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, disability, as defined in R.S. 51:2232(11), or national origin.' According to the law, a place of public accommodation 'means any place, store, or other establishment, either licensed or unlicensed, which supplies goods or services to the general public.'"

Al-Khalili's letter cited Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on account of religion in places of public accommodation and service. She also referred to the company's diversity policy that claims SUBWAY "does not tolerate discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, creed, religion, color or national origin."

CAIR requested that SUBWAY (1) investigate this troubling incident, (2) offer a formal written apology to the victim and his wife, (3) institute policy changes that will ensure that this type of incident does not occur in the future, (4) offer compensation to the victim and his wife for the humiliation and emotional distress caused by the SUBWAY employee and the police, and (5) participate in a corporate religious sensitivity program for franchise managers.

A copy of the letter was sent to Chief Willie L. Shaw, Jr. of the Shreveport Police Department and to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

CAIR press release, 29 November 2012

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