A burqa-clad woman's alleged attack on a Gwinnett County woman and her daughter this week has fueled both national headlines and widespread speculation — but what, precisely, triggered the incident, which involved the victims' own American flag, remains decidedly unclear.
Aisha Ibrahim, 30, was arrested following the Tuesday morning incident on Lawrenceville's Highland Loop, in which she allegedly approached a home, ripped a flag off its mailbox and assaulted Damion Arno and her 17-year-old daughter without speaking a word. They escaped with minor bumps and bruises, and Ibrahim was charged with two counts of simple battery.
Gwinnett County jail records suggest Ibrahim lives about three miles from the Arnos, and police don't believe she has any connection with the Arnos or their subdivision — where a woman wearing a black burqa, also believed to be Ibrahim, was spotted loitering the night before the more high-profile incident. Authorities didn't find her that night, and don't know why she was there either time, Lawrenceville police Capt. Tim Wallis said Friday.
"No idea," Wallis said. "... It just appears she walked out on the road and it turned into a random event."
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Damion Arno said she and her daughter were sitting in their garage having their morning coffee before the attack. Around 8:30 a.m., the younger Arno looked up and saw Ibrahim standing at the end of their driveway, everything covered save her eyes.
"I stand up and she starts heading toward my flag," which was attached to a four-foot PVC pipe and screwed to the mailbox, Damion Arno said. "I tell her, I say, 'Don't touch my flag,' and she pulled it so hard she ripped the screw out. And she charges through my yard toward my daughter and I."
For the next 10 minutes or so, Ibrahim, Arno and her daughter tussled with each other and the flag. Ibrahim allegedly took a shoe off and hit Arno's daughter. At one point, Arno said, her son pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot. A neighbor was eventually able to grab Ibrahim and control her until police arrived, the incident report said.
"It was a crazy scene," Arno said.
Arno praised the response of Lawrenceville police, and knows Georgia is one of five American states that doesn't have hate crime legislation — but she doesn't think the misdemeanor charges filed against Ibrahim are enough.
"I believe that this was a hate crime," Arno said. "She picked up the American flag to assault Americans on American soil. What else is it?"
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Wallis said he's fielded calls from as far away as Louisiana and Minnesota, from people "raising Cain" about the lack of hate crime charges against Ibrahim -- charges that his department could not file if they wanted, in a case that they still know little about. Wallis said Ibrahim has not been "very forthcoming" with detectives, even about her name and address. He wasn't sure if mental health may have played an role.
The FBI has the authority to bring federal hate crime charges but, even in more clear-cut cases, prosecution can be difficult. Brian Levin, a professor at California State University-San Bernardino and the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said prosecutors seeking such charges have to prove "motivation bias" beyond a reasonable doubt.
"Federal prosecution for hate crimes don't occur everyday," Levin said. "They really involve cases that have had national impact and involve really over the top violence."
An FBI spokesman was not familiar with the case and declined to comment Friday morning.
As of early Friday afternoon, Ibrahim remained in the Gwinnett County jail in lieu of $7,200 bond. She does not have any holds for immigration, a sheriff's office spokeswoman said. Online records list her birthplace only as "Africa." Multiple calls to Ibrahim's purported home went unanswered Friday.
Back on Highland Loop, Arno said her family remains on edge, even three days after the alleged attack.
"I have a permit for my .38 and I walk around my house armed," she said. "I shouldn't have to do that. I carry my gun from room to room in case somebody comes."
