Nurse assaulted by patient in alleged hate crime at Telecare  

Editor’s note: This article contains a quoted, racially offensive term that the arrested person allegedly called the victim.  

 A nurse working in a psychiatric facility in Olympia was physically assaulted and allegedly called a racist name by a patient on July 4.  

The incident occurred in the Telecare facility located at 3400 Mary Elder Road NE, while the nurse was giving medication to the patient.  

According to the victim, the suspect initially took only one pill and became violent when encouraged to take the rest. The suspect attacked the nurse, punching him multiple times and pulling his hair. The nurse reported being punched twelve to seventeen times, suffering injuries to his eye, ear, and head, and losing some hair. 

Other staff members intervened to stop the assault but were also attacked in the process. 

The victim narrated to the responding officer that after the suspect “assaulted him, he looked at him and called him a nigger.” When the officer interviewed the victim, she asked him if he believed that the assault was racially motivated. At first, the victim said that he didn’t think so, but “as thought about it, he said it was possible he was assaulted due to his race because this had never happened before,” according to the officer’s report. 

The victim sought medical treatment at the emergency room and planned to undergo a CAT scan. 

When asked by authorities, the facility staff confirmed that the assault was unprovoked. In response to the assault, facility staff subdued the suspect and placed him in a seclusion room before the OPD arrived and took him into custody.  

The suspect, a resident of Enumclaw, was arrested and booked into Thurston County Jail on charges of third-degree assault and malicious harassment, classified as a hate crime.