An African-American man from Kent who was a victim of what his family, Auburn Police and King County prosecutors have called a hate crime attack, continues to fight for his life with a traumatic brain injury.
Prosecutors have charged Julian Tuimauga, 18, of Auburn, for the brutal assault on 26-year-old DaShawn Horne on Jan. 20 outside of a house in Auburn.
The suspect faces charges for first-degree assault and malicious harassment, the state’s designation for hate crimes. Tuimauga, who is listed as Asian in court documents, remains in the county jail at the Maleng Regional Justice Center (RJC) in Kent on $500,000 bail.
Tuimauga will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Monday in Courtroom GA in King County Superior Court at the RJC.
Horne remains in critical condition, with severe head and jaw injuries, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Doctors removed parts of his cranium to relieve swelling to his brain, charging documents said.
According to the police report and charging papers, Tuimauga is accused of attacking Horne with an aluminum baseball bat after becoming enraged when he learned his sister had spent the night with Horne at her Auburn residence in the 600 block of 27th Street Southeast. The siblings live at the home.
Tuimauga, police said, was “in a rage” when he struck Horne.
According to charging papers and the police report:
On the morning of Jan. 20, the woman called a Lyft car to drive Horne home. When the driver backed his car into the driveway, Tuimauga had come out of the house to ask who he was there to pick up, and the driver told him it was his sister who requested the ride.
The driver then saw Tuimauga walk to the corner of the fenced year, and shortly thereafter, saw Horne walk along the side of the house toward the driveway, according to the reports.
The driver called 911 shortly before 10:30 a.m. after the two men began to argue by the driveway. The driver then saw the suspect strike the victim two times in the head, knocking him to the ground, according to charging papers.
The driver heard Tuimauga say, “This is what happens when you bring black people around here,” charging papers said. The witness said the suspect struck Horne three more times to the body while he was lying on the ground, the reports said.
Horne was unconscious, bleeding as he lay on a rockery in the front yard when Tuimauga proceeded to take out his cellphone to take video of the victim while yelling racial slurs at him, charging documents said.
According to the reports, Tuimauga repeatedly used the N-word.
When police arrived at the scene they found Horne beaten and on the ground, unresponsive but breathing.
Police came inside the home to arrest Tuimauga.
Surveillance video recovered from a neighbor’s house that overlooked Tuimauga’s driveway shows Tuimauga, bat in hand, striking Horne twice while he is unconscious on the ground, once in the torso and another directly in the head, the police report said.
According to the Seattle Times, Horne is a mail handler for the U.S. Postal Service. He played football at Federal Way High School and studied criminal justice at Eastern Washington University in Cheney for three years before dropping out when his former girlfriend got pregnant.
The Horne family has set up an up a GoFundMe page to help cover the victim’s medical bills, lost wages and child support for his 16-month-old son.
