Milwaukee police arrested Clifton A. Blackwell, a 61-year-old white man suspected of throwing acid in the face of Mahud Villalaz, a U.S. citizen originally from Peru, resulting in second- and third-degree burns, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Police have not confirmed the identity of the suspect they arrested. Villalaz says that before his attacker threw acid on him, he called him an “illegal” and told him to “go back to your country.”
"I believe (I) am a victim of a hate crime because (of) how he approached me," Villalaz told CNN-affiliate WISN.
The assault occurred outside of a Mexican restaurant on Friday. Villalaz said the man initially confronted him about how he had parked his car. “He started talking like, ‘You don’t respect my laws. You can’t invade my country, so go back to your country,’” Villalaz recalled to NBC News.
Villalaz said he ignored the man, moved his car, and when he came back toward the restaurant, the older man was waiting for him with an open bottle. The situation quickly escalated from there. A nearby surveillance camera caught the attack on video, embedded at the bottom of this post, which shows a man splashing a liquid onto Villalaz’s face. The video does not include audio. Immediately after the attack, Villalaz said he went to the restaurant’s bathroom and rinsed his face with water. Villalaz said doctors believed the liquid was battery acid. It also burned his jacket, sweater, and shirt.
Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime. "To single out someone because they're from a Hispanic origin is simply wrong. And we know what's happening," said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. "Everybody knows what's happening. It's because the president is talking about it on a daily basis that people feel they have license to go after Hispanic people. And it's wrong.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first identified the attacker as Blackwell. According to Blackwell’s mother, Jacqueline Blackwell, he is a military veteran who lives with PTSD. As reported by the Journal Sentinel, state court records show that Blackwell was convicted in 2006 for false imprisonment and pointing a gun at a person as well as confronting men over entering his farm property to track a deer, though few details are available online.
As the survivor, a 42-year-old father, explained to The New York Times, his sons, ages seven and five, have struggled with understanding the attack. “The younger one started crying and said, ‘Why would somebody do this to you, Daddy, when you did nothing to him?’” Villalaz said. “How do you explain this to a little boy?”
These are questions that too many children are probably wondering. Anti-immigrant rhetoric is toxic and, as demonstrated again and again, deeply dangerous. The attacker’s alleged “go back” threat is familiar from the words of Donald Trump when he told four freshman Democratic congresswomen—frequently known as the “squad”—to “go back” to their own countries. And of course, the deadly mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas Walmart was fueled by white supremacy and anti-immigrant hate.
A video from the surveillance footage is embedded in the below tweet:
Here’s an interview clip with survivor Villalaz: