Man charged with hate crime after threatening Asian postal worker

DALY CITY >> Prosecutors have filed a hate crime charge against a man they say threatened to kill an Asian American postal worker while chasing him and grabbing his mailbag last week.

Lamont Demetrius West Verdon, 26, described by police as an unhoused Oakland man, was arrested on suspicion of a hate crime, making criminal threats and illegal drug possession, all misdemeanors.

The encounter was reported Saturday while the postal worker was delivering mail. According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, the worker said Verdon approached him, looked him in the eye, and told him, “F— you, I’m going to kill you, you f—ing Asian” before he pulled off the victim’s mailbag and started rifling through it.

The postal worker ran to his mail truck, locked himself in and dialed 911, prosecutors said. All the while, Verdon allegedly followed the victim to the truck and “screamed things at (the) victim” that were unintelligible.

Verdon left the scene, and responding police officers found him in the area. Prosecutors said Verdon denied any wrongdoing to the officers.

Verdon was arraigned Monday, when he pleaded not guilty and was assigned a defense attorney. He is being held at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City in lieu of $1,000 bail after a judge denied a defense request for him to be released on his own recognizance. The judge also issued a no-contact order for Verdon regarding the postal worker.