A group of black soldiers were arrested for allegedly stabbing a white comrade to death while calling him a cracker. The police now say the attack was NOT a hate crime.
Police today said the stabbing death of a white Army soldier allegedly at the hands of a group of African American comrades was not a hate crime – despite witnesses claiming they called him a ‘cracker’ during the confrontation.
Tevin Geike, 20, was left for dead in a parking lot near his base in Lakewood, Washington, in the early hours of Saturday morning and three soldiers have been arrested over the killing.
In the hours after the stabbing, police said they believed the attack was racially motivated because it was claimed some of the assailants – a group of five black men – called Tevin a ‘cracker’, a racist term for a white person.
But Lakewood police officers today said they no longer believed the killing to be a hate crime following the arrests and speaking to everyone they believed were involved.
All the suspects are from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and served in the same combat infantry unit as Tevin.
The accused are Jeremiah Hill, 23 – the alleged murderer – Cedarium Johnson, 21; and Ajoni Runnion-Bareford, 21. Two others are still being sought.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Tevin’s mother Jennifer Rose fought back the tears as she said that she had got a text from her son just hours before his death saying he was going to get a tattoo to celebrate his military graduation.
She said: ‘Tevin trusted everybody until they gave him a reason not to trust them. He was really kind-hearted and he would give you the shirt off your back.
‘He absolutely loved being in the military and was looking forward to graduating. He wanted to be an oil rigger.’
Mrs. Rose, 39, added, that there was ‘no way’ that Tevin would have said anything racist to provoke his killer.
She said: ‘I have a hard time with that (the racism) because we have some really good friends who are black and we consider them family. It may have been racial from their side but not my son’.
The attack has sparked an outpouring of emotion on Facebook with Tevin’s step-father Dean Rose writing: ‘I love you son and the world is not as good without you in it. You will be missed. RIP son’.
Tevin’s younger brother Jarod wrote: ‘I want to cry but can’t all the tears are gone…feels like a nightmare just want it to end….trying to stay strong is hard when it comes to a family member especially a brother getting murdered.
Even after the death of her son, Mrs. Rose still feels compelled to show her loyalty to diversity.
Tevin Geike
HT: Peter “Scoop” Stanton
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