Mahud Villalaz suffered second-degree burns on his face in an attack outside a Milwaukee restaurant

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

A 61-year-old white Milwaukee man accused of throwing acid on a Hispanic American man’s face will be charged with a hate crime, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Prosecutors filed one charge against Clifton Blackwell – first-degree reckless injury – but added hate crime and use of a dangerous weapon. The two sentencing enhancers could add 10 years in prison if he’s convicted of first-degree reckless injury, which is punishable by up to 25 years.

The victim, Mahud Villalaz, 42, said his attacker approached him near a restaurant Friday night and confronted him about being parked too close to a bus stop, according to charging documents. Prosecutors said Blackwell then asked, “Why did you invade my country?” and “Why don’t you respect my laws?”

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Villalaz said he moved his car but that Blackwell continued to berate him, calling him “illegal” and telling him to “go back, go back”, followed by an expletive. Villalaz said he called Blackwell a racist, also using an expletive. Villalaz said Blackwell threw the acid on him after Villalaz said “everyone come from somewhere first”.

Surveillance video from the restaurant recorded the attack, which left Villalaz with second-degree burns on his face. Villalaz is a US citizen who immigrated from Peru.

The attack on Villalaz comes at a time when the Anti-Defamation League says extreme anti-immigrant views have become part of the political mainstream in recent years through sharp rhetoric by anti-immigration groups and politicians, including Donald Trump.

Blackwell does not yet have an attorney, according to court records.

Blackwell’s family said he’s a military veteran who came to Milwaukee to seek help for an undetermined medical issue. His mother, Jacqueline P Blackwell, of California, told the Journal Sentinel he had sought care with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Milwaukee for post-traumatic stress.

“I was comfortable that he was getting good care with the VA,” she told the newspaper.

His brother, Arthur Eugene Blackwell of Evergreen, Colorado, told the AP that Clifton served nearly four years in the US marines and was stationed at the Panama Canal around the time Manuel Noriega was captured and removed in 1990. A marine official told AP that the branch doesn’t have a record matching Blackwell’s name and birthdate.

State court records show Blackwell was convicted in a 2006 Rusk county case of false imprisonment and pointing a gun at a person in a case where he held four hunters at gunpoint because they were on his property.