Three adult suspects were arrested and charged with committing a hate crime for attacking a Black teen who was visiting their juvenile female relative in the early morning hours last week.  

In addition to the hate crime, Wilfredo Amaya, Haydee Arguello, both 46, and 49-year-old Luisandor Suarez were charged with kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and criminal threats. 

Investigators say at around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday (August 22) a male juvenile came to the San Bruno, California, police department to report he was kidnapped and assaulted. 

The incident, which was supposedly about 30-minutes long, reportedly began around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday when the girl’s mother, Arguello, and stepfather, Amaya, arrived home to discover the young man and then alerted the girl’s biological father, Suarez, a resident of San Francisco, who arrived shortly after. 

“He had been held against his will, assaulted and threatened by three suspects at a residence in San Bruno,” Lieutenant Ryan Johansen stated in a Facebook post about the boy’s account. 

“These family members ultimately restrained the victim using rope … and even threatened to kill him,” said Lieutenant Johansen, adding, “The victim reported that throughout this attack, the suspects yelled at him using multiple racial slurs and he believed his race to be a motivating factor in the attack.” 

The 17-year-old was then brought to an area hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries and was later released.

A different account of the story is being told by the 15-year-old girl’s older sisters, who are insisting this was a case of self-defense. They allege the boy began kicking their parents when he was caught in the girl’s closet. 

“They were so scared because they found someone in the closet,” said Belkys Gomez, one of the girl’s older sisters. “They jumped because everyone was sleeping and this guy started kicking my step-father and trying to kill him.” 

The other sister, Katherine Gomez, went on to detail how the teen allegedly punched her mother, provoking Amaya to defend her because he “is not going to let anyone hit his wife.” 

The parents reportedly tied the teen up to restrain him when he became violent. 

The 15-year-old daughter remains in the custody of Child Protective Services. 

“Physically, I think they will be perfectly fine,” Lt. Johansen said of the teens to the San Francisco Chronicle, adding, “emotionally, I think there are a lot of scars.”