Michael Amatullo has been arrested for verbally harassing two black boys. On Dec. 27 his charges were upgraded to a felony for unlawful use of a weapon, and the case is being prosecuted under Oregon's hate crime law.
According to court documents, Amatullo came up to an 8-year-old boy who was taking out trash from his apartment and started yelling at him, using the N-word and other expletives.
The boy's older brother then came outside and tried to de-escalate the situation. At that point, police say Amatullo started calling the teenager the N-word, and said that "if he kept it up he was going to beat his ass."
Police say Amatullo then went into his house and brought a kitchen knife out to "protect himself."
Amatullo was arrested shortly after, but the racial attacks didn't stop there. Documents say while he was in the back of a police car, an officer asked Amatullo if he feels like he's a racist.
Amatullo then responded, "When you act like an animal, yeah you're a [expletive] N-word." He then told the officer, "I hope your wife and kids [expletive] die pig! [Expletive] monkey [expletive]! Send them all back to planet of the apes! You catching all that?! Write it all down! I'm not gonna get beat up by a bunch of [expletive] N-words," according to court documents.
Amatullo was charged with intimidation and menacing and was released from jail on a $5,000 bail. He was arrested after a bench warrant was issued because he made more violent threats after his release, which violated the terms of his release.
According to court documents, Amatullo threatened to stab the teenage boy in the head if he didn't drop charges against him.
Amatullo appeared in court on Friday and the judge increased his bail to $250,000.