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Uploaded: Monday, February 23, 2009, 5:31 PM
Updated: Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 7:38 AM
Police still probing 'hate crime'/shooting link
Insults, beatings occurred outside bar -- police puzzle over connection to East Palo Alto shooting victim
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by Don Kazak
Palo Alto Online Staff
Mountain View police have arrested four East Palo Alto people -- three Pacific Islanders and a Latino -- and charged them with a hate crime for allegedly insulting and beating four persons from India outside a Mountain View bar at 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
But police are still puzzling over a possible connection to the shooting of an East Palo Alto man -- who turned out to be a cousin of two of the men arrested for the hate crime.
The two cousins had driven the shooting victim to a local hospital. Mountain View police arrested them at the hospital for the Mountain View hate crime.
As far as the Mountain View police know, the shooting and the alleged hate crime are completely unrelated.
East Palo Alto and Mountain View police aren't even sure where the shooting victim, Lutoviko Tausigna, 22, was when he was shot. He told police initially that he was shot in the 2500 block of Annapolis Avenue in East Palo Alto.
But East Palo Alto police say no one who lives in the area heard any gunshots and the city's "Shotspotter" system, which triangulates the location of gunshots fired in the city, didn't record anything at that location.
Mountain View police also have no witnesses who reported any gunshots early Saturday morning, Liz Wylie, the department's spokeswoman, said.
It is still a mystery where Tausigna was when he was shot.
But Wylie said there are no reports Tausigna was part of the earlier alleged hate crime involving his two cousins.
Tausigna's cousins, Frisco Tuipulotu, 23, and Tuutalihihifo Tuipulotu, 20, were arrested in connection with the hate crime, as were Richard Juarez, 23, and Caroline Evaimalo, 24 -- all from East Palo Alto.
The four Hindi-speaking people, three men and a woman, had left a Mountain View bar at 1:30 a.m. to walk to their car, Wylie said, when they were confronted by two women who made racial comments about their native language and ethnicity. The two women confronted the Hindi-speaking woman and began "punching and slapping her," Wylie said.
When the victim's husband came to her aid, "four to six male suspects appeared and dragged the man away from his wife and began punching and kicking him," Wylie said.
The two other male victims also tried to intervene and were punched, Wylie said. All the alleged attackers then fled in two cars, she said.
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Posted by Jim, a resident of another community, on Feb 23, 2009 at 7:14 pm I would guess the guy was shot accidentally by one of his acquaintances. That's why they had to come up with a bogus story.
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Posted by One Love, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Feb 24, 2009 at 9:19 am I'm sorry to hear this. We should learn to love and respect the difference in each other. Please don't blame this on the boys becauce they live in East Palo Alto. Look at the other hate crime guy who's from burlingame.
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Posted by Jilly, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 24, 2009 at 10:07 am One East Palo Alto crime after another. Very sad!
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Posted by Sarah, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 24, 2009 at 10:33 am A rumble between 2 groups outside a bar at 1:30am? This probably has more to do with alcohol than race. Of course, the media loves playing the race card.
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Posted by jack, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Feb 24, 2009 at 12:29 pm I don't get this. Why would the oppressed minorities attach another oppressed minorities? Where's the logic in that?
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Posted by Sarah, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 24, 2009 at 2:09 pm Alcohol != logic
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Posted by La Vero, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Feb 24, 2009 at 2:54 pm Alcohol and hate is a dangerous mix. if you have hatred, it's always there... alcohol just makes it easier to come out. It's pathetic that we attach one another in this day and age. PATHETIC! What's even more pathetic? Getting shot my accident and reporting it as a drive by... PATHETIC.
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Posted by Junior Soprano, a resident of another community, on Feb 25, 2009 at 2:34 am What is wrong with you people? Why TF do you think that, because people are from different races and cultures, they're going to automatically join hands and sing "Kumbaya? That dog excrement only happens in Hollywood movies. Some of you people come across as Christian missionaries or Peace Corps retreads.
If multiculturalism is really so great, then the United Nations would be paradise.
Yeah, right.
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Posted by MEDIATOR, a resident of Mountain View, on Feb 26, 2009 at 12:32 pm More police would be fine, as long as it doesn't get to the level of Downtown San Jose.
ALSO: Saying that "I saw a Pacific Islander do this and do that.." is RIDICULOUS!!
Take any person who's lived an even semi-balanced life (I know there seem to be less here in the city of plenty, but they ARE here) and ask them if they've seen at least a few examples of EVERY race committing SOME sort of atrocity, and also seen EVERY race doing something heartwarming. It's called human nature, people. Folks have screaming "burn the witch" for centuries, because bloodlust is a part of human nature too. Silicon Valley is reknowned for this, it was the last place in our civilized country to realize that a mob lynching a suspect without fair trial is a no-no (Early San Jose History- Lynching in St James Park-Hart Kidnapping)
In conclusion: If you live on Earth, ALL of your ancestors and maybe some of your progeny have: killed, healed, looted, donated, burned, repaired, raped, educated, poisoned, nourished, aided, slacked, worked hard, and generally LIVED.
Alcohol HAD to be involved, considering the late hour it occurred at.
I am by no means condemning alcohol, but I'd be in favor of an I.Q. test rather than an age restriction on alcohol. Some folks don't have enough sense to act right when they're sober, these folks should be kept away from intoxicants at all costs. They need all the brain cells they have.
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