WASHINGTON — A Bethesda, Maryland, man who is accused of threatening to harm a D.C. crossing guard and using anti-Hispanic language earlier this week was arrested Thursday, police said.
Lionel Kevin Hyater, 55, was charged with felony threats and stalking, D.C. police said, in an incident not far from Lafayette Elementary School in the Chevy Chase neighborhood.
Around 3:25 p.m. Monday, police said Hyater was stopped at an intersection in the 5500 block of Broad Branch Road Northwest, where he “threatened to cause serious harm” to the crossing guard. Hyater reportedly also used anti-Hispanic language directed at the crossing guard.
A parent of a student at the elementary school called 911 to report an erratic, angry man threatening to kill the crossing guard after yelling anti-Hispanic slurs.
Police are investigating Hyater’s threat as potentially being motivated by hate or bias. “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime,” police added in a news release.
When the parent’s 911 call was made Monday, a call-taker at the District’s 911 center failed to dispatch police to the school quickly, wrongly classifying the threat incident so that police officers weren’t dispatched until 27 minutes later, after a school nurse also called.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
