A 16-year-old Staten Island teen was arrested this week (#boring) and charged with a hate crime (#h8crime) for a racially-motivated burglary (#youonlyliveyolo)—but he apparently wasn't too worried about any of this. According to SILive, 16-year-old suspect Shaquan Butler, of West Brighton, wrote out two statements on separate legal pads after being arrested: "Hi, you've got me in a room with cops. Big gas. Thank you tho," and, "My statement. I do not kare about any of this. #facts."
Police allege that Butler and two other suspects targeted a neighbor's house across on March 27. According to court papers, Butler kicked the front door, then used a shopping cart to force it open; he held a broken glass bottle in his hand, while his accomplices carried a metal pipe and a knife. Butler allegedly yelled at one of the people who was home, "Get the (expletive) out of here. We're going to take everything out. Get the (expletive) out of here you Mexican."
Later that evening, police came to arrest Butler, but he fled on foot. He ran into a home nearby, shoving aside a four-year-old boy in the process, then hid under a bed in the basement before officers found him. Butler has now been charged with second- and third-degree burglary as a hate crime, second-degree menacing as a hate crime, fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime and second-degree criminal trespass as a hate crime.
When he was initially arrested, Butler denied he did anything wrong: "It wasn't me. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm cool with them," Butler said, according to law-enforcement sources. But then he allegedly admitted he was in the house...but he had a darn good reason to be: "I was inside a couple of months ago. OK, I was in that day. I was going to borrow a scale."
