Perry George Nicolopoulos

A Washington man who Lincoln City police say earlier this month used his car to intentionally ram a man who was visiting the coast with his family now faces a "motivated by bias" enhancement to the charges.

Oregon on Monday notified the Lincoln County Court in Newport it would add the enhancement, along with several others, to the charges against Perry Nicolopoulos, 68, of Puyallup.

Police say Nicolopoulos intentionally rammed Mohammad Fawad Mohammadi of Portland, who friends say was an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan before immigrating to Oregon. The other enhancements include "use of a weapon" and "permanent injury."

Those enhancements could lead to a longer sentence for Nicolopoulos if he is found guilty in the attack. He is charged with 12 felonies, including attempted murder, and four misdemeanors.

Initially, Lincoln City police said they had yet to determine a motive in the incident, in which witnesses say an older man in a gray car intentionally rammed Mohammadi and his vehicle multiple times outside a Walgreens, at one point pinning him between the two cars.

Mohammadi was flown to Portland, where he had part of his leg amputated. A GoFundMe page set up by a Mohammadi co-worker had raised nearly $85,000 as of Tuesday morning.

Mohammadi "came to the U.S. a little over three years ago from his native Afghanistan, where he served as an interpreter for the U.S. Military for four years, often in the thick of battle," wrote the page's creator, Stephanie Ballard Agramonte.

Mohammadi's wife and young son, who were with him at the time of the attack, were uninjured.

Nicolopoulos remains in the Lincoln County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court again for an Early Resolution Conference on April 30.

Nicolopoulos' attorney and the Lincoln County district attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker