A driver is facing a hate crime charge after he was arrested for allegedly trying to strike members of a local LGBTQIA+ running club in West Palm Beach last month.
West Palm Beach police said they first responded to a park along the 1300 block of Parker Avenue around 8:20 p.m. on Nov. 24. There they found runners who reported that a man behind the wheel of a Ford Bronco SUV had tried to hit several members with his car.
Witnesses said the suspect, later identified as 43-year-old Ihab Mustafa El Mahmoud, then “accelerated toward the runners, making a second attempt to strike them” and “drove recklessly along sidewalks, through grass, and up an embankment before fleeing eastbound onto Okeechobee Boulevard.”
Police later saw the suspect allegedly pulling into a parking garage along the 700 block of North Dixie Highway and removing the vehicle’s license plate…