Hate Crime: Man Charged For Attacking Immigrant Woman At Motel

An Oregon man was charged for beating a 70-year-old immigrant from India on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

James Lamb, a Eugene resident, was staying at the Redmond Motel run by the 70-year-old unidentified victim with her husband. On Dec. 31, he broke into the manager’s office and launched an attack at the woman. She sustained injuries to her throat, a broken shoulder, and a black eye following the violence, ABC 10 reported.

Deschutes County grand jury charged Lamb with “one count of attempted murder in the second degree, two counts of bias crime in the first degree, one count of assault in the second degree, one count of burglary in the second degree, one count of strangulation, one count of menacing, and one count of criminal mischief in the second degree,” according to an official statement.

The woman provided testimony of the assault to the grand jury from her hospital bed. She is expected to survive. Lamb told the jury before his indictment that he nurtured a desire to "rid America of people like her."

The woman’s husband said they possess U.S citizenship and have been living in America for decades.

“Too many people in Oregon are silenced by intimidation and violence because of how they look, who they love, or to whom they pray,” the district attorney, said in a statement.

Oregon legislature has revised its “hate crime” law last year enabling a felony hate crime to be charged when a defendant acts alone to harm another judging by their race, color, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin.

Lamb was scheduled to reappear in court Friday.