TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (AP) A 23-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder as police yesterday were considering a possible racial motive in the shooting of a man sitting in a van with his family behind a Middle Eastern restaurant.
Police said the victim in the Thursday shooting was Nabil Chagri, 27, of Arab descent. Chagri was in fair condition at a hospital.
The suspect, Jason Michael Gardner, 23, was arrested and charged Friday. Charges include attempted murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.
A motive for the shooting was still being investigated yesterday. The restaurant owner said Gardner had used a racial slur against him.
Police Lt. Lloyd Baker said the suspect had been belligerent at the restaurant about 20 minutes before the shooting.
Jassim Madan, who immigrated from Bahrain, said he has operated the grill serving Middle Eastern takeout food for about five years.
Madan said he was inside a restaurant Thursday night when a customer told him a man was urinating on it. When the man was told to leave, Madan said, the man used a racial slur and slapped one of the restaurant's customers.
The man left, but later returned alone in his truck with a .22-caliber rifle and began firing at the rear of a van parked behind the restaurant, Baker said.
Chagri had been seated in his minivan with his wife, infant and elementary-school-aged child when he was shot.
Several witnesses described the shooter's vehicle. A tip received led police to the suspect. Baker said the shooter damaged several parked cars as he fled the scene.
