Warrant issued for suspect in Fremont hate-crime case

A man charged with malicious harassment after he allegedly assaulted a store clerk and accused him of being a terrorist failed to appear at his arraignment Tuesday and is now wanted on a bench warrant.

Edward Campbell, 42, was charged with one count of malicious harassment, the state's hate-crime law, after he allegedly called a clerk at Fremont convenience store a terrorist and hit him on the head with a can of beer on July 3.

The clerk, Amin Almaklani, 28, had to get stitches after the attack at the M&S Grocery and Deli, in the 400 block of North 36th Street.

Almaklani said the assault scared him and prompted him to leave the state and move to Fresno, Calif. He declined to speak further. Almaklani worked in Seattle for about four months, his former boss said.

Moses Shai, who owns the store, said that on July 3 he was walking with two other men of Middle Eastern descent a couple blocks from his store when they were approached by a man dressed in camouflage.

The man taunted the three men with an Arabic phrase and accused them of going to fight for Osama bin Laden, Shai said. Shai and Almaklani are of Yemeni descent.

"I said, 'Get out of my face,' then he started talking bad, so I ignored him, I think he's crazy," Shai said.

A couple of hours later, about 7:30 p.m., the same man was sitting in the doorway of his store, Shai said. Shai told him to leave.

Shai said the man called him a terrorist. Shai yelled at the man to leave, and he did, Shai said.

At about 10 p.m., while Shai was at home, the man returned to the store, Shai said.

He bought a beer from Almaklani, according to court records. Then he started talking to Almaklani about bin Laden and Muslims, and eventually he told Almaklani to "go back with bin Laden" and leave this country, according to Shai and court records.

During the exchange, Almaklani asked the man to leave the store. Almaklani also asked a customer to call 911, court records say. The man then hit Almaklani, according to court records.

Campbell was booked early on July 4. He had a bail hearing the next day. The King County Prosecutor's Office requested bail, but the judge released Campbell on personal recognizance, said Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donohoe.

Two days after he was assaulted, Almaklani stepped out of the store and spotted Campbell about a block away. That's when he told Shai he could no longer work there, Shai said.

"If they hadn't released him, Amin wouldn't have left," Shai said.

So Shai bought Almaklani a plane ticket to California, where he found a new job, Shai said.

Donohoe said the Prosecutor's Office handles about 20 malicious-mischief cases a year. This is the first case this year involving harassment of someone the suspect believed was Muslim, Donohoe said. There were three such cases last year, Donohoe said.

The victim of one of last year's cases, Steven Saleh, is Shai's nephew.

Saleh had to defend himself with a metal pipe when he was attacked and called a terrorist by a man and woman at his store, Saleh's Delicatessen, in Ballard. The man and woman were both found guilty of malicious harassment.

Saleh said he was disappointed to hear his uncle's employee suffered a similar attack.

"We've been through a lot lately," Saleh said. "People look at me differently, even when I go to a bar, someplace to eat — yes, I don't get assaulted all the time — but it's been a sad story for the last few years for me."

Leslie Anne Jones: 206-464-2745 or ljones@seattletimes.com