Okla. man charged in death of neighbor
He called the family “dirty Arabs,” and tried to run over the mother with a car, authorities said. An Oklahoma man’s animosity toward the LebaneseAmerican family living next door, according to court records, took a fatal turn this month when he shot one of the sons on the porch of their house in Tulsa.
The man, Vernon Majors, 61, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the killing of his neighbor, Khalid Jabara, 37, on Aug. 12, according to a statement by the district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler.
Majors, who had recently been released on bail after allegedly hitting Jabara’s mother with a car, also was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, threatening an act of violence and malicious intimidation or harassment — the last count a misdemeanor reflecting the years of racism and violence that authorities say has pervaded the stretch of grass connecting their yards.
Rebecca Abou-Chedid, a friend who is serving as a spokeswoman for the Jabara family, said Jabara’s death had devastated the tight-knit Lebanese community in Tulsa.
“From a larger community’s perspective, what they see is a 37-year-old man shot and killed by a man who called them ‘dirty Arab,’ ” Abou-Chedid said in a telephone interview. “There is no nuance. When people are using ethnic and racial slurs, this isn’t just people being sensitive about it, but that they should be taken seriously.”
Marvin Lizama, Majors’ lawyer for the earlier case, said in an email Tuesday that he had no comment on the new charges.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said that Jabara was clearly targeted because of his ethnicity.
“The unfortunate murder of Jabara is a reflection of the impact and power of hateful rhetoric in politics and the society at large,” the group said.
In September 2015, Majors rammed Haifa Jabara with his car, and he was charged with assault and battery. In May 2016, the district attorney’s office tried to keep Majors in jail to await trial. Majors, however, was able to make bail and was released.