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‘I don’t like Black people.’ Man charged after stabbing at Oregon Arby’s, feds say

A Colorado man stabbed a Black man unprovoked at an Arby’s in an Oregon travel center, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Nolan Levi Strauss, 26, was charged with “a hate crime involving an attempt to kill” the Black man, according to the Department of Justice.

On Dec. 21, 2019, a 48-year-old Black man went to an Arby’s within the Pilot Travel Center in Ontario, Oregon, officials said. He had planned to give documents for a job application.

“Unprovoked and without warning, Strauss approached the man from behind and stabbed him in the neck,” the Department of Justice said in the Sept. 17 news release. “Following a struggle for the knife, the man freed himself and Strauss was detained by store employees. When asked by the store employee why he attacked the man, Strauss stated he did so because the man ‘was Black, and I don’t like Black people.’”

The victim was stabbed twice in his neck, and he was life-flighted to Boise for surgery, officials said.

Strauss will appear in federal court Oct. 19, and he faces a life sentence in federal prison, according to the Department of Justice.