Five unidentified suspects in Lakewood, Wash., fatally stabbed a Summerville soldier, and authorities say the crime may have been racially motivated, according to multiple media reports.
Tevin Geike, 20, died Saturday walking along the road with two other friends. According to multiple reports, the two men accompanying Geike said they were target by five black men, shouting racial slurs. Geike and the men with him are white and soldiers.
Authorities are exploring the possibility of a hate crime.
“If what they’re telling us is true these soldiers could have been targeted because they’re soldiers or because they’re white,” Lawler said to the Seattle Times.
Geike was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord as an aviation operation specialist.
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