Three men charged with committing hate crime, assault

Annapolis police charged three men with assault and committing a hate crime yesterday, alleging that they attacked a Middle Eastern cab driver, made ethnic slurs and told him to go back to his country.

Charged with felony and misdemeanor assault and a hate crime were Ray Charles Bailey, 21, of Southern Hills Drive in Arnold; David Jacob Grobani, 19, of Mago Vista Road in Arnold; and Robert Jason Canter, 20, of Sun Valley Drive in Annapolis.

Police said they were called to the Amoco station at 1207 Forest Drive at 4:37 a.m., where they saw three men, who appeared to be drunk, standing near a Middle Eastern man whose face was bleeding.

The victim and a witness told officers that the three men got into his taxi and wanted to go to Arnold. But the driver refused, saying he was off-duty. The driver told police he believed the men were too unruly. Police said the men became angry, punched and kicked the cabdriver, hit him with a glass bottle and beat him with a broomstick. During the attack, police said, the men made ethnic slurs.

The victim was identified as Muhammad Suhail Raza Malik. Police said he was hospitalized and in fair condition.

Name of motorcycle driver involved in crash released

A motorcycle driver was reported in critical but stable condition yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, after his vehicle crashed into the side of a minivan early Sunday.

Police identified the driver as Mark William Harrell, 32, of the 400 block of N. Patuxent Road, Odenton. They said his motorcycle was traveling north on Piney Orchard Parkway approaching Waugh Chapel Road at 1:54 a.m.

The minivan, driven by Kimberly R. Skerritt, 17, of the 2400 block of Warm Spring Way, Odenton, was headed south and stopped in the left-turn-only lane of Piney Orchard Parkway. Police said witnesses told them that when the left arrow turned green, the minivan turned onto Waugh Chapel Road, but the motorcycle drove through a red light and crashed into the van.

The driver of the minivan and her passengers, all family members, were treated at Anne Arundel Medical Center and released, hospital officials said. An investigation is continuing.

Woman reports man followed, grabbed her

A man grabbed a woman yesterday morning on Jumpers Hole Road in Pasadena but she was able to break free, the woman told Anne Arundel County police.

Police said the woman told them that as she was walking about 8 a.m., a man began following her. He later grabbed her from behind, police said.

She told police that she broke free. The man told her he only wanted to talk to her. He ran away. She called police, but they were unable to locate the man.