FOND DU LAC, Wis. (NBC 26) -- A fatal crash in Fond du Lac County is being charged as a hate crime. The crash happened July 3rd.
27-year-old Daniel Navarro has been charged with first degree intentional homicide and first degree recklessly endangering safety. According to court records, both charges have hate crime modifiers attached to them, as well as modifiers for use of a dangerous weapon. According to the charging document, deputies say he admitted to intentionally swerving his truck into a motorcycle driven by 55-year-old Philip Thiessen. Thiessen died at the scene.
In the criminal complaint, Navarro said he targeted a motorcyclist, instead of targeting someone in a car, because, "he wanted the person to die and not be paralyzed." The criminal complaint also said Navarro believed the Harley culture is made up of white racists. Investigators didn't find evidence that the victim was involved in any racist activity, according to the criminal complaint. Instead, the criminal complaint said Philip Thiessen was a former Marine, police officer, DCI Special Agent and a frequent volunteer at a local food pantry.
Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt spoke about the incident at a press conference Thursday.
"Given the current social climate, the information shared today will undoubtedly lead to future conversation and discussions within our community, and I cannot stress enough that we want those conversations to be peaceful and respectful in nature and not lead to further tragedy or retaliation," said Sheriff Waldschmidt.
Tracy Abler, the board president of United for Diversity, said having conversations, hearing personal stories, and sharing is key.
"Being able to talk about this but talk about it civilly. Be open minded. Don't come to a meeting or conversations with just hate built up inside of you and you wanting to get it out. I guess there's a place and time for that, but when you're trying to create a safe conversation where people on all sides can just say, 'This is what I'm feeling, this is what happened to me,' just be really open to that," added Abler.
She said conversations can happen throughout the community whether it's at a religious or education institution, with employers, police or others.
"I think having a skilled sort of facilitator is very essential. From my experiences with race conversations, it's real important to have a person of color and a white person kind of co-facilitate those conversations," added Abler.
Abler also suggested people start by self-educating and holding themselves accountable. She said there are many resources including online, books, and trainings. For a list of resources of United for Diversity's website, click here. Another good place to start, she said, is on social media.
"Really think about what you're putting on social media. There's so much divide and you have a right to your opinion, but let's just fill the world with love and kindness for a while," added Abler after noting the amount of hate she's seen being spread on social media.
Abler said she understands there's a lot of pain and anger. She added that there have been many eyeopening events, including what happened in Fond du Lac. She said it's important to understand and respect that this is a diverse country.
