Police arrest hate crime suspect at Parkland Denny's

When sheriff's deputies first confronted Rory French, they say, he was ready for a fight.

As they walked into a Denny's restaurant in Parkland, he was yelling, “let's go," and, “you're going down."

“He was actually going after somebody because of their race, but then it became a fight with anybody and anything,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer.

The 41-year-old French went after a restaurant employee Tuesday, shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill him, according to charges filed Wednesday.

French allegedly spotted the employee on a break seated at a corner table in the restaurant and confronted him calling him the n-word. He then threatened the man, yelling, “you are going down n*****”, chasing the victim and continuing to shout racial slurs including, “I am going to kill you n*****”, according to a probable cause affidavit.

“When it’s race motivated, that makes it a crime,” said Troyer. “And he met all those circumstances. Whether he was in his right frame of mine, we’ll have to wait and see.”

French was subdued with the help of other customers in the restaurant who held him until deputies arrived and took him into custody. “And then he still wasn’t cooperative and assaulted one of our officers and the fight was on,” Troyer said.

French was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation before entering a plea on charges of malicious harassment, assault and resisting arrest.

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