Antelope Valley Skinhead Indicted in Hate Crimes

Federal authorities announced the indictment Thursday of an Antelope Valley skinhead on hate crime charges in connection with a pair of racially motivated assaults on African Americans.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for Danny Edward Williams, 22, who FBI agents said is a fugitive.

The indictment charges Williams with conspiracy to deprive African Americans of their civil rights and two counts of intimidating, injuring or interfering with African Americans on public streets.

According to the indictment, Williams and others drove the streets of Lancaster looking for African Americans to taunt and beat. They shouted “white power” slogans, flashed skinhead signs and Nazi salutes and made racially derogatory remarks to African Americans.

The indictment cited two violent attacks--an April 28 baseball bat beating of an African American outside a video store and a July 8 machete attack on another African American who was walking his cousin home in Lancaster.

U.S. Atty. Nora Manella added that investigations of other alleged civil rights violations in the Antelope Valley are continuing.

The indictment follows a rash of hate crimes in the Antelope Valley that have drawn scrutiny from law enforcement officials and the county Human Relations Commission. Recent community response has led to a task force and a hate crime hotline.

Federal authorities said Williams and others were loosely associated with a group of skinheads who call themselves the “Nazi Lowriders.” Williams is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with blond hair and green eyes. He weighs 180 pounds and has swastikas tattooed on his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. He also has a hooded Ku Klux Klan figure tattooed on his left shoulder.

Agents believe Williams may be growing his shaved hair to avoid being identified.