Man Throws Concrete Because Mall ‘Too White’

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.”

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