WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors announced on Wednesday a hate crime indictment by a federal grand jury against a man who police said had stabbed a Muslim person multiple times in mid-July because of the victim’s religion.
Peter Larsen, 48, of Orem, Utah, was indicted by a federal grand jury “for the federal hate crime of willfully causing bodily injury to a victim because of his actual or perceived religion” in a July stabbing at the Valley Fair Mall in Utah’s West Valley City, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Larsen, who could not be reached for comment, has been detained in state custody since his July 13 arrest.
The incident raised alarm among Muslim Americans after police said that the victim, a Muslim man, had “multiple stab wounds all over his body and was bleeding profusely” and that the attacker told police that he “intends to kill Muslims.”
The victim was stabbed multiple times, including in the neck, and needed surgeries, federal prosecutors said. They added that an investigation determined Larsen went to the mall to attack Muslims.
Larsen purchased a knife from a store inside the mall and went around asking mall employees if they were Muslim, federal prosecutors said, adding that when the victim responded that he was a Muslim, Larsen began stabbing him.
The attack was stopped when bystanders intervened and subdued Larsen until police arrived.
U.S. rights advocates have noted rising Islamophobia over the last two-plus decades following the September 11, 2001, attacks, and more recently because of anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Deadly violent attacks in recent years include a 2023 stabbing of a 6-year-old Muslim child in Illinois whose killer was sentenced to 53 years in prison before he died in custody, and a 2026 shooting at a San Diego mosque that left five dead, including two teenage suspects.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis)