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Milford Man Charged With Hate Crime After Anti-Asian Incident

PIXABAY.COM

A Milford man has been charged with a hate crime after allegedly yelling “Go back to China” and reversing his car toward a man walking along the street on Tuesday.  

Police say Joseph Rohrig, 38, was driving near Hill and W Town streets when he approached a man walking a dog.

 

“The victim stated that he was walking his dog and a male drove by yelling out something to him,” said Officer Brianna McDonald, with the Milford Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit. “He ignored it and the male then allegedly did a U-turn and drove back towards him and started making comments about his mask, and told him to allegedly ‘go back to China.’” 

 

Milford police said they responded to an initial report of breach of peace after the man said he felt threatened because of what he looked like, according to McDonald. The man helped officers identify Rohrig, who was arrested Thursday on charges of second-degree harassment and third-degree intimidation based on bigotry. 

 

Rohrig admitted to approaching the victim but denied making any racial comments, McDonald said. 

 

The case is a priority for the department amid a rise of racist violence in the last year. 

 

“We don’t stand for this. And we’re here for the community of every race, ethnicity, gender, etc.,” McDonald said. “We just encourage people to give us a call right away so we can handle it. We don’t want this to happen as much as the community doesn’t either,” McDonald said. 

 

Just in the last year, about 3,800 anti-Asian and Pacific Islander incidents have been reported across the country, with 65% of those cases involving verbal harassment. 

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

Connecticut Public’s journalism is made possible, in part by funding from Jeffrey Hoffman and Robert Jaeger.