Man charged with hate crime against Las Vegas business owner

A 26-year-old man faces a hate crime charge after calling his former employer anti-Semitic slurs and threatening his business and family, according to an arrest report.

The Metropolitan Police Department report accused Chad Edward, 26, of increasingly hostile, frequent and pointed threats toward his old employer, which is redacted from the document. The mounting threats culminated with the business owner calling police on May 28 to report he was scared for his life.

The owner told police that Edward had threatened to “kill and burn all Jews” and “blow up” the business, the report said. Dispatch records suggest the business is in the area of South Jones Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

Prosecutors charged Edward with harassment and a hate crime last month. His bail was set at $5,000, and he remained in Clark County Detention Center as of Sunday night. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday, according to court records.

Three employees of the business told police that they had heard Edward, over time and on the day police were notified, call the owner or his family slurs or threaten his businesses, the report said.

“You and your Jew family, I will blow you all up,” said one employee, relaying what he heard from Edward to police.

Edward was considered to be a trespasser at all of the owner’s businesses, but the threats and anti-Semitic tirades against him and his family had grown more frequent and aggressive, the report said.

The business owner told police he had initially hired Edward in April 2016 “because he felt sorry for him and his family, that appeared to be homeless,” the report said. The owner fired Edward about a month later as “the arrangement did not work out,” he told police.

Attempts to reach the business owner for comment were unsuccessful.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.