2 Men Arrested in Racial Attack at Lancaster Store

LANCASTER —  Two men who authorities say are affiliated with a white supremacist group were arrested late Tuesday on suspicion of assaulting an African American Wal-Mart worker who approached a white woman in the store’s parking lot.

Nathaniel Harris, 20, was rounding up shopping carts at the Lancaster Wal-Mart when he thought he recognized a 20-year-old woman as a former high school classmate, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Axel Anderson.

Harris asked the woman if the two had been classmates--angering her boyfriend, Shaun Broderick, 19, and their friend, Christopher Crawford, 25, Anderson said. Broderick walked to his car, pulled out a 20-ounce hammer and confronted Harris, yelling threats, obscenities and racial epithets, Anderson said.

Grasping the hammer with both hands, Broderick hit Harris in the shoulder, Anderson said. Harris fought back and was wrestling with Broderick, authorities said, when Crawford joined in, kicking and hitting Harris.

The attackers fled in their car after a Wal-Mart security guard intervened.

Using a license plate number supplied by witnesses, L.A. County sheriff’s deputies stopped the two about four miles away. The men were arrested and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and civil rights violations. They were being held Wednesday on $85,000 bail.

Harris suffered a bruise to the shoulder. He was treated and released from a hospital.

Anderson said the two suspects are affiliated with Antelope Valley’s Nazi Lowriders gang and have criminal records.

The incident rekindled concerns over racist activity in Antelope Valley.

“This is just the latest in a string of problems out here,” said Darren Parker, head of the Antelope Valley Human Relations Hate Crime Task Force, a citizens group formed three years ago to mobilize against hate crimes.

Last week, the task force held a news conference--attended by Sheriff Lee Baca, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, Supervisor Mike Antonovich and others--to highlight its mission.