Was Burr Ridge Killing A Hate Crime?

BURR RIDGE, IL – The killing of a Serbian trucking firm owner in Burr Ridge would have been investigated as a hate crime if the suspect lived, a police official said Monday.

According to a police report, Jeremy Spicer, 31, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, killed Nikola Misovic, 30, in March. Spicer took his own life shortly afterward, police said.

The police report, obtained by Patch through a public records request, said Spicer showed hatred toward Serbians, who own some of the trucking firms in Burr Ridge. Spicer worked at a few of them, having been fired repeatedly, according to the report.

In an email to Patch, Burr Ridge Deputy Police Chief Marc Loftus said police would have investigated the hate crime aspect. But he noted that prosecutors ultimately make the decisions on charges.

According to the report, a person at Winners Freight, co-owned by Misovic, told officers that Spicer would speak negatively about Serbians and the trucking company.

The report stated, "Spicer expressed that he hated Serbians on some phone calls he made to the company. These phone calls were made on a recorded line."

Misovic was from Serbia, moving to the United States in 2014, the report said.

On its website, the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes discusses what is a hate crime.

In hate crime law, the website says, the term "hate" does not mean rage, anger or general dislike. It means bias against groups with specific characteristics, including race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of a person or group of people.