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On Monday, December 26, Denver resident Jordan Krah was arrested on hate crime charges after he made racist comments to two college students of Asian descent.
In a now-viral footage of the incident, filmed by victim Arine Kim for her TikTok, the two students can be seen eating a meal at an East Bay In-n-Out when they are confronted by Jordan Krah.
Krah proceeded to ask where the diners were from. When the male victim answered that they were Korean, Krah called him "Kim Jong-un’s boyfriend." The suspect proceeded to refer to himself as a "slavemaster," before subsequently threatening the college students with violence.
The male victim, later identified as Elliot Ha, said in response:
"Dude, that's genuinely never happened to me before."
The footage of the incident, which eventually went viral, led authorities to arrest Jordan Krah.
The victims and officials respond to the allegations against Jordan Krah
In an interview, victim Arine Kim told NBC reporters that after his racist and homophobic rant, Jordan Krah reportedly stared at them from outside the store's window for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, adding:
"Elliot and I were shaking and stuttering towards the end of it."
Kim told ABC7 in a seperate interview:
"(People are) Making it seem like not a big deal — I think a lot of Asian people in general do that. I want to bring more awareness to this, and I want other people to realize how bad it is."
She told KTVU that she did not believe the suspect was in the right frame of mind.
"He did not look entirely mentally well. He just kept on spewing nonsense."
The male victim, Elliot Ha, stated that the duo had to ask the staff present at the fast food restaurant to help walk them out as they were afraid for their safety.
"We made sure to ask the workers, could you guys walk us to our cars, we need to make sure that he's not still around. And the workers were just super helpful."
Ha went on to tell NBC reporters that Krah was only arrested due to the fact that the footage went viral. He clarified that otherwise, countless hate crimes never come to the attention of authorities.
"For every one that's caught on camera, there's hundreds that go unchecked, so I really hope that there's more awareness about this."
San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson specifically reached out to Arine Kim after the video began to garner attention across social media platforms, stating in an interview:
"Through the help of social media, we were contacted by one of the individuals in this video."
According to USA Today, Jordan Krah was accused of other racist incidents, including threatening other Asian Americans around the East Bay on Christmas Day. He was taken into police custody by California authorities before being released on Monday.
