Man indicted, but not charged with hate crime, in stabbing of Palestinian supporter

A Travis County grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict a man on a hate crime charge in the stabbing of a man showing support for Palestinians near the University of Texas campus in February but indicted him on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Bert Baker, 36, faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted of the second-degree felony.

The stabbing outside a West Campus apartment complex was part of a surge of "anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate," according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The 23-year-old victim, Zacharia Doar, a Palestinian American, had traveled from Dallas with his father for a protest in downtown Austin. He was driving with friends to an evening prayer when the stabbing occurred. Doar underwent surgery after the stabbing and was expected to take six weeks to recover, his parents, Nizar and Odi Doar, said in February.

The Austin Police Department said in February that its Hate Crime Review Committee had determined the stabbing constituted a hate crime and sent its findings to the Travis County district attorney's office.

On Wednesday, CAIR said it welcomed the indictment but called for the U.S. Department of Justice to file federal hate crime charges against Baker.

"If shouting racial slurs at a group of Palestinian-Americans and ripping the Palestinian flagpole off their car before stabbing one of them is not a hate crime, then nothing is a hate crime," CAIR said in a statement published on its website.

In a statement issued Tuesday, District Attorney José Garza acknowledged that many religious communities in Travis County and across the country were concerned about a rise in hate crime reports and had hoped for a different outcome for Baker.

"Our office takes hate crime referrals we receive from our law enforcement partners incredibly seriously," Garza said in the statement. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to prosecute these cases and ensure that those who commit hate crimes in Travis County are held accountable."

Richard Gentry, who represents Baker, said: “The district attorney's office did a thorough job investigating the case, and after presenting all the facts and evidence to the grand jury, this confirms what my first impression was after meeting Bert Baker for the first time — that he would not commit such an act out of malice toward any individual group.”