'Probably they don’t like the color that I have': Edmonds storekeeper alleges racial bias crime

Jawahar Lal closed up his Edmonds convenience store after an incident he deems racist. And police are investigating whether a bias crime was committed.

Lal said that on Memorial Day someone came in the store on 100th Avenue West and said, “You don’t belong to this neighborhood. You have to move.”

The next morning, Lal said, he found someone had spray-painted the window with the words “Go back.”

“At that point, I decided I am no longer stay here,” Lal said, “because this is more like a threat.”

Lal is originally from Fiji, but he’s lived in the United States for three decades.

He said he operated a previous store -- a gas station, convenience store and U-Haul pickup location on Aurora -- for 13 years without any incidents.

But Lal said he’s felt unwelcome ever since he opened the Edmonds store in late April.

“At least twice a week, somebody would from the neighborhood come and tell me that I was not wanted over here,” Lal said.

“Maybe they don’t like the business that I have,” he said. “Probably they don’t like the color that I have, because Edmonds is a white community.”

Lal planned to rent U-Haul trucks at his new store. Since the neighborhood is residential, he had to notify neighbors of his plan. Most of the comments were negative, expressing concerns about things like increased traffic through the neighborhood.

So his landlord, Matthew Metz, invited the neighbors to a public meeting at a library. Metz handed out renderings of what the property would look like as a convenience store and truck rental, and he said the outcome of the meeting was generally positive.

The police are trying to figure out who spray-painted the building and, depending on what they find, what type of criminal charges would be warranted.

By the end of last week, Lal had cleaned most of the merchandise out of the store. There was little left except empty shelves and a few cigarette boxes.