not all crimes and arrests happen instantaneously. some crimes require dedicated law enforcement officers to investigate and apprehend the accused. the ee lee murder case was one of them. therefore, initial reports did not investigate the murder as an asian hate crime. due to police investigation efforts two arrests have been made in the matter. there has been one confession. was the ee lee murder an asian hate crime?
ms. ee lee was hmong. the hmong people are from the southwestern china region. due to limited freedom from china in the mid-1600s, they migrated to to Laos, thailand and other neighboring countries. as a result of the viet nam war, hmong families were resettled to various parts of the world, including the united states. mprnews.org the hmong are essentially a people with no nation of their own.
in the criminal complaint, it is noted that a cell phone was present during the crime and that there may be portions of the event that were recorded. there is some question as to the videos’ content. per the complaint, one person who possessed the video erased it as the request of his mother. further, there is no indication that the police are in possession of a copy of the video.
the following is the information known from the complaint that references the video: “lj also admitted to later observing a video that was supposedly recorded on defendant kamare lewis’s cell phone of defendant lewis and defendant kevin spencer kicking and hitting the victim while she lay defenseless on the ground.” “ks admitted he received a facebook messenger video that was recorded by kamare lewis’s cell phone. ka stated that the video depicted kamare lewis and kevin dpencer beating the victim and laughing. ka admitted to showing the video to jr. he also admitted to deleting the video from his cell phone.” “detective gayle asked jr what she saw on the video on her son’s cell phone. jr stated she saw two boys beating a lady, hitting her in the face and her face was bloody.” “detective gayle asked if she could see who the boys were. jr stated you could tell who they were. she stated it was the boy “kamare” with the “dreads” and the boy “kj.” jr identified these known subjects as being identified as defendants kamare lewis and kevin spencer respectively.” detective gayle asked if you could see anyone else in the video. jr stated that the two defendants were the only ones hitting the victim, but she stated that it looked like a lot of little kids standing around. Detective Gayle asked who sent her son the video and she stated the boy “kamare” with the dreads (defendant Kamare Lewis). “detective gayle asked who recorded the video and she stated ka said it was kamare lewis’s phone and someone else had it but he could not or did not identify the person. detective gayle asked when they received the video and she stated about two days after the incident (approximately september 18, 2020).” “detective gayle asked when the video was deleted. jr stated she told her son to get rid of the video because it doesn’t have anything to do with him and told him and to stay away from kamare lewis. detective gayle asked when did her son showed her the video and she stated he didn’t show her right away maybe a couple of weeks after the homicide.” complaint.
there have been rumors concerning the video content. one rumor is that video recorded individuals saying things such as “i love r*ping ch*nk b**ches.” note: this information is merely rumor without substantiation. further, even if said, it would not necessarily constitute a hate crime. it is possible that individuals other than the accused may have made such comment.
thus, to investigate whether there was a hate crime in this matter, the following should occur: first, a determination should be made as to whether law enforcement is in possession of a copy of the video. if so, many questions concerning whether it was a hate crime can be addressed. second, the individual who possessed the video and his mother can be interviewed on the issue as to whether anything on the video was suggestive of a hate crime. third, the individuals who were present at the crime scene could be interviewed as to what they saw and heard.
the ee lee murder deserves to be investigated with respect whether it was a hate crime. the brutality and heinousness of the crime and the recent awareness and apparent increase of asian hate crimes demands it to happen.
be well!!
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