Man throws concrete because mall
'too white'

BY MICHAEL FRAZIER
Newsday Staff Writer

June 7, 2006

An Amityville man angered over what he said were too many white people at Massapequa's Sunrise Mall reacted by hurling a concrete slab at a woman's minivan, Nassau police said yesterday.

Carl Graves, 20, who is black, was arrested Monday after, police said, he threw the approximately 6-inch slab and struck the windshield of the minivan carrying Kim McCandless, 34, of West Islip and four children -- all of whom are white. No one was injured in the random attack, which investigators called a hate crime.

Hours before the attack, Graves was walking with friends at the mall when he suddenly grew angry because it had become "too white," said Det. Lt. Karl Schoepp of the Seventh Squad. So, Graves found a chunk of concrete and carried it in his jacket pocket for hours just "waiting to do something," Schoepp said.

McCandless came under attack while in her 2002 Dodge minivan with her two daughters, ages 3 and 7 months, and her 2-year-old nephew and 4-year-old niece. Her other two daughters, ages 5 and 7, were at school at the time.

"At first, I just thought it was just some dumb kid," McCandless said yesterday. "I never thought something like this would happen to me because of color. It is disgusting."

After interviewing witnesses, police arrested Graves at his home at 2 W. Somerset Rd. He was charged with third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree menacing.

Graves, who is unemployed, pleaded not guilty yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead and is being held on a bail of $10,000 bond or $10,000 cash. Family members could not be reached yesterday.

Because the attack on Monday is considered a hate crime, the criminal-mischief charge was elevated from a Class E felony to a Class D felony, punishable by up to 7 years in prison, Schoepp said.

"It a very dangerous act, a reckless act," Schoepp said in a police news conference in Mineola.

McCandless was driving her niece and nephew home about 3:15 p.m. when she saw two men on the sidewalk.

As she turned onto Louden Street near the mall, Graves chucked the slab at the van, police said.

McCandless said she thought he was throwing trash until she heard a loud bang and saw a spider-webbed crack in the windshield near the van's hood.

"He looked straight into my face when he did it," McCandless said. "He never said a word. He only walked away laughing."

McCandless said a construction worker and an undercover officer came to her aid. After the attack, she said she jumped out of the van screaming, but the officer told her to return to the vehicle for her safety.

"The kids were hysterically crying and I was crying," she said.

Trish Ketelsen, a marketing director for Sunrise Mall, said the incident didn't occur on mall property and she declined to comment, citing the ongoing police investigation.

Despite the attack, police said, the mall is as safe as it ever was. "This is an isolated incident," Schoepp said.

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