Black family terrorized by racist neighbor who stabbed their dog ‘The KKK is coming’
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Dawn McDowell, a single mom of three, says she is under attack from her white neighbor, who stalks and harasses her with racist threats against her family.
McDowell alleges that Richard Dean Wojtas has terrorized her and her kids in their Hammond, Indiana neighborhood. She posted about her horrifying ordeal on Facebook after he allegedly stabbed her dog. In the video she posted, Wojtas is shouting repeatedly, “The KKK is coming.”
It all started around August 2017, when her neighbor Wojtas started his verbal assault on the family. McDowell has a daughter, 17, a son (who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy), 14, and a daughter, 11 months.
“We live behind a radio station, and one night, he started running from his home to the parking lot yelling, ‘I hate you [N-word], you gang bangers,” McDowell, told, Yahoo.
In October 2017, McDowell said she rushed home from work after her daughter called her saying their 5-year-old pit bull Sasha was in Wojtas’s yard with a knife stuck in her back.
“I was told that Sasha had gotten into Richard’s yard and attacked one of his dogs,” McDowell reports. “Richard hit Sasha in the head with a hammer and stabbed her eight times, supposedly to save his dog.”
McDowell didn’t believe her dog, who assists her nonverbal son during seizures, would exhibit aggressive behavior.
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Wojtas then sued McDowell for his medical bills. She lost the court case and filed for bankruptcy after he filed to garnish her wages.
Right before the court date in 2018, McDowell said Wojtas made another ominous threat.
“One day, I let out my dogs in my yard, and Richard came out on his porch and loaded his shotgun,” McDowell said. “He was yelling that he was going to kill my dog, so I took his photo and called the police.”
According to the outlet, Wojtas was charged with felony intimidation and was issued a no-contact order.
However, McDowell lost her case against the menacing neighbor over the dog issue.
A judge ruled that McDowell had to pay Wojtas $3,482.70, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana because her dog was reportedly at fault.“The judge said, ‘You’re not going to like my verdict, but since your dog is a pit bull….” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle.
Wojtas has tried to garnish her wages, she said and McDowell ultimately filed for bankruptcy. In retaliation, McDowell said Wojtas has fired his shotgun from his porch, yelled the N-word, and threw paint on her red car.
Wojtas’s lawyer, Shane O’Donnell, told The Times of Northwest Indiana that the man who spews hateful rhetoric is a “law-abiding citizen.”
McDowell said although she fears for her life, she refuses to be driven out of her home.
“Why should I have to leave? I’m in a bad financial bind, in bankruptcy, and can’t afford a new roof,” she told Yahoo. “He is trying to intimidate me.”
According to WGN9, Indiana is one of only five states without a hate crime law, so any charges against Wojtas would involve harassment, intimidation or violations of court orders.
“It was a terrible thing,” she told WGN. “I had never seen nothing like that in my life. For him to do what he did to her, it was just a horrible hate crime, just a horrible hate crime.”
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