Cops: Racial Slurs Lead to Thrown Fire Extinguisher, Assault Charge

A local man will be in court later this month facing an assault charge after an incident last week at a local gas station.

Omar A. Palmer, 29, of Concord, was arrested at 12:53 p.m. on July 28, 2015, on a simple assault charge.

Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction. Click this link to find out how to get a name removed from a New Hampshire Patch police report.

Officers were sent to the Mobil station on Loudon Road for a report of a clerk being assaulted by a man who threw a fire extinguisher at him.

Dispatch gave a description of the man while the reporting officer went to speak to the clerk. The clerk alleged that a man was attempting to take a fire extinguisher from the car wash area and he requested the man put it back and leave. Instead, Palmer reportedly began hurling racial slurs at the clerk.

“(The clerk) said that the suspect called him ‘cracker’ and ‘white n-----‘ then threw the fire extinguisher at him,” the officer reported.

Another officer reported that the security cameras didn’t pick up the incident and officers went looking for the man.

The reporting officer found a suspect match the description of the man while he was walking west on the north side of Loudon Road at the top of Gully Hill. The man, Palmer, reportedly didn’t have identification but stated he was heading to the bus station to take go to New York City.

Another officer and sergeant arrived and when asked about the situation at the Mobil station, “Palmer first told me, ‘Nothing happened,’” the officer alleged. “I then asked him if he had a problem with the clerk at the gas station. Palmer then told me that he was outside of the gas station when a man ‘came at’ him. Palmer said that he defended himself but he would not explain what he did to ‘defend himself.’”

The reporting officer then spoke to a witness by phone who tipped the clerk off to the man possibly taking a fire extinguisher. The witness alleged that Palmer appeared to be attempting to take the mounted fire extinguisher off the wall and told the clerk about it. The clerk approached Palmer, the witness alleged, and told him to put the extinguisher back. After that, Palmer allegedly called him “cracker,” and threw it at him, striking him in the wrist.

Palmer was arrested and is due in court on Aug. 31.

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