Man dies in random act of racist violence, police say
NEW YORK — One was a neighborly black man who lived in a rooming house in New York’s Garment District, collected autographs outside Broadway’s theaters and took photos of himself with Oprah and Beyonce.
The other was a white Army veteran from outside Baltimore who was raised in what was described as a churchgoing and liberal family and served in Afghanistan.
Late Monday, officials say, their paths crossed on the streets of New York in a random act of racist violence by the white man.
As Timothy Caughman, 66, bent over a trash bin near his home, gathering bottles, James Harris Jackson attacked him from behind with a 2-foot sword and walked off, prosecutors say. A bleeding Mr. Caughman staggered into a police station and later died at a hospital.
On Thursday, Mr. Jackson, 28, was charged with murder as a hate crime. He said nothing in court.
“The defendant was motivated purely by hatred,” said Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, who added that the charges could be upgraded, “as this was an act most likely of terrorism.”
Prosecutors said Mr. Jackson hated black men, especially those who dated white women.
He came to New York last week to make a splash in the media capital of the world by killing as many black men as possible, authorities said. He saw Mr. Caughman on the street and thought he would make good practice for a larger attack in Times Square, they said. But Mr. Caughman wound up the only victim.
After seeing his picture in the news, Mr. Jackson turned himself in at a police station. He was armed with two knives and told officers he had tossed the sword in a trash bin in Washington Square Park, officials said. It was later recovered.
Investigators are trying to determine what drove Mr. Jackson to violence. His attorney, Sam Talkin, said if the allegations are anywhere close to being true, “then we’re going to address the obvious psychological issues that are present in this case.”
Mr. Jackson was in the Army from 2009 to 2012 and worked as an intelligence analyst, the Army said. Deployed in Afghanistan in 2010-11, he earned several medals and attained the rank of specialist.