A man from the Grand Rapids region was last week charged with three charges of felonious assault and three counts of ethnic intimidation. He allegedly threatened to shoot multiple people and shouted racial insults in a neighborhood on the city’s southeast side late Thursday night.
Friday saw the arraignment of Andre Lee Curtiss, who is accused of making threats against multiple persons of color.
Reports indicate that just before 11:30 p.m., Curtiss, using his white vehicle, collided with two pedestrians on Meerse Street near Division Avenue. After that, he used a racial slur and shouted at them to go inside their houses.
Shortly after, Curtiss emerged from a neighboring residence brandishing a shotgun. Eyewitnesses informed the authorities that they overheard him uttering additional derogatory terms and threatening to “blow your {expletive) away.”
A neighboring house was a safe haven for one of the two first casualties. He and a number of people took refuge in the flat while Curtiss supposedly resumed his tirade through the windows.
“The biggest thing is ethnic intimidation is not just words. It’s always got words plus some sort of action,” Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said. “I think that’s where we kind of get misled or it’s not clear on, is that you can use all the bad words you want or all the racial slurs you want, it’s when combining those racial slurs with some sort of tangible action that puts that person in fear that something more is going to happen. That’s where you get into ethnic intimidation law.”
Curtiss denied ever “racked the shotgun and it was unloaded” when questioned by police after the fact. Nevertheless, according to one officer, the shotgun had five extra shells in addition to the one already in the chamber.
Curtiss had bail posted. He is scheduled to appear in court again next month.
