Riff Trace, a 31-year-old man, was arrested for “battery that was bias and racially motivated” but was released from jail on Friday morning. The Wichita Police Department says they arrested Trace and investigated an incident at an east Wichita Dillons store it describes as a “racially motivated bias crime.”
According to KWCH, around 7:20 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to an assault call at the Dillons store in Wichita. The arresting officers reported, “Through the investigation, it was learned Trace walked into the Dillons store and kicked a 1-year-old victim in the back, causing the child to fall on the floor.”
Trace kicked a Black boy in the back while yelling racial obscenities and insults. When the police finally arrived on the scene, Trace was being held to the ground by citizens.
Lashantai Whitaker, the mother of the boy who was attacked, also was present with her daughter. She said, “We were barely in the store, and [Trace] kicked him in his back. All I heard was a loud thud and my daughter screaming.”
“What grown person, I mean, even if you do have that much hate for someone, … I mean, why would you attack a baby?”
