Rice County Jail

A teenager in Faribault is facing charges for a bias crime after he allegedly sprayed a Faribault family with a water house and yelled xenophobic abuse at them.

Zachariah Manahan, 18, has been charged with stalking committed because of bias, damage to property and disorderly conduct following the incident on Saturday evening.

The target for his alleged crimes were his neighbors, a Somali family that included several young children.

When police arrived at the scene, they learned that Manahan had sprayed the family with a garden hose that had been hooked up to a pressure washer. He had also sprayed their upstairs living room by aiming the stream through the window.

Officers spoke to a 15-year-old girl who lived at the house, who told them Manahan was spraying her and her siblings while saying "F------ Somalians" and "B---- Somalians."

He was also said to have used "racial language" while spraying the water, according to a criminal complaint.

It was the third time that day he had sprayed the children while yelling about "Somalians."

Police found that inside the house, a rug, clothing, some walls, and a piece of furniture were drenched with water.

When questioned by police, Manahan said he had been spraying the top of his fence, not the children or their home.

In a statement issued after the criminal complaint was released, Council of American-Islamic Relations-Minnesota executive director Jaylani Hussein said: "We welcome the charges brought against this suspect who allegedly terrorized Muslim children, and hope they send the message that bias-motivated acts of violence will not be tolerated in our state or nation."

The Star Tribune reports that Manahan had only been released from jail a few days earlier after an alleged domestic assault involving his mother, and has also been charged three times with theft in the past few weeks.