Man arrested in felony hate crime

A Huntington Beach man arrested last week faces hate crime charges for allegedly yelling at a black woman and attacking her white friend.

John Keihl DeLoach, 20, was charged Monday with felony hate crime battery causing injury and felony hate crime assault with injury, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

DeLoach is accused of stopping his car at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 1 outside a Huntington Beach convenience store when he spotted a black woman inside and turning up his stereo that was playing racist, anti-black music, according to the district attorney’s office.

Later in the day, he allegedly spotted the same woman inside an apartment complex and yelled racial slurs at her.

The woman was with a white man, and DeLoach is accused of yelling that interracial relationships are wrong.

DeLoach and another unknown male allegedly ran up to the woman and continued yelling at her.

When the woman’s companion stepped in front of her, DeLoach punched him in the face and kicked him twice in the back when he fell, according to the district attorney’s office.

DeLoach is accused of then fleeing the scene while the woman called the police.

A warrant was issued for his arrest Friday, and officers found him at Overlook Park. Police say he to run from the officers and resisted arrest.

DeLoach is being held on $100,000 bail and faces a maximum sentence of seven years and four months in state prison if convicted of all charges.

He was convicted of residential burglary in 2009, his first strike.

— Britney Barnes