The Filipino-American family who was threatened and physically assaulted by a man at a McDonald’s drive-thru in North Hollywood, California last month, will seek an extraction warrant for their attacker.
Patricia Roque, 19, expressed frustration at her family’s ongoing case against Nicholas Weber, who is accused of hate crimes for refusing to attend his arraignment for a third time.
“It’s very frustrating,” Patricia told campaigner for migrant rights Xenia Tupas on June 24. “How long do we have to wait to get solid confirmation of something? This is Weber’s third refusal.”
“I know we’re putting enough pressure on it, but it’s very hard to get that pressure to the right authorities so they can hear what the people and my family want in this case,” she added.
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Weber, who is currently in police custody, refused to leave his cell for arraignment. The hearing was canceled due to his absence, according to a joint statement by the Filipino Migrant Center, the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), and Migrante Los Angeles.
A arrest warrant was issued after Weber failed to appear in court on June 8. He was arrested in Orange County on June 16 and charged with battery serious bodily harm and felony, both with improvements in hate crimes.
The 31-year-old suspect was filmed intimidating and assaulting the Roque family a McDonald’s drive-thru on Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood on May 13. Weber reportedly ran into the family’s car from behind before telling Patricia and her mother, Nerissa, that they were “so Asian.” Weber allegedly made racist remarks and threatened to kill them with a fake Asian accent.
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The verbal assault turned physical when Weber tried to open their car door to get to Patricia, but was stopped by her father Gabriel, who arrived at the scene minutes after being called by Patricia. The 60-year-old father was knocked to the ground and suffered a broken rib as a result of the attack. Nerissa was reportedly asphyxiated when she tried to stop Weber.
Activists gathered in front of the Van Nuys District Attorney’s Office on June 17 to demand justice for the family. Dozens of supporters called on officials to thoroughly investigate the matter and prosecute Weber for committing a hate crime.
Patricia called District Attorney George Gascon’s allegation that he was in close contact with the family “an exaggeration.”
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“He’s got his information wrong. If he’s trying to appease the people, appease my family for his own political and personal gain, he might as well have looked into the background of our case before making a statement that was clearly untrue,” says Patricia. said† “He said the incident happened 10 days ago, when in fact it has been more than a month since the incident happened.”
He also said he is in close contact with the family. No,” she added. “I think he only had contact with my parents once, but that doesn’t equate to close contact. Not only that, we don’t even hear from the defense attorneys and from him.”
Featured image via ABS-CBN News (left† Turn right†
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