Man shot three times in street by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama
T-shirt
By _Daily Mail Reporter_
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter)
Last updated at 6:01 PM on 07th October 2008
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A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a
Barack Obama T-shirt.
Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when
the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of
the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend 'Believe'.
The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate
n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.
Respect: Dube Egwuatu wearing the Obama T-shirt that provoked a racist attack
The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was
waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a
gun behind his back.
Realising what had sparked the increasingly violent assault, the terrified Mr
Egwuatu zipped up his jacket to cover the image of Mr Obama and walked to
his car.
But the shaven-headed man, who was white, followed Mr Egwuatu and after
pulling open the passenger door pointed the gun at him.
After pleading with the man to leave him alone, the married former street
warden put the keys in the ignition and turned the engine on.
The attacker then fired the gas-powered ball-bearing pistol three times,
hitting the civil servant in the face, hand and shoulder.
Fearing for his life and bleeding heavily, Mr Egwuatu raced away in his car
and found somewhere safe to call for help.
He was taken to hospital and later sent to have a piece of metal removed from
his jaw.
Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: 'The venom in his
voice was frightening.
'He was telling me that he was going to kill me.
'I couldn't believe it was happening - and just because I was wearing an
Obama T-shirt. He was trying to make me walk somewhere quieter, saying: 'I've
got something for you,' and 'I'm going to kill you.'
He added: 'Obama inspires me, his educational track record alone is quite
unbelievable - that is why I was wearing the T-shirt.
'I did not think for one minute it could stir up such powerful feelings of
hatred and I never said a word to him.'
Mr Egwuatu's wife, Angela, 35, said neither of them had experienced anything
like it during their childhood in Nigeria.
Mrs Egwuatu, an immigration officer, said: 'At first my feelings were pure
horror and now it is pure anger.
'If he had been carrying a real gun I would have been a widow. It is just
ridiculous.
'I don't know how a person's mentality works. Why would a T-shirt get you to
the point where you want to shoot someone.'
To the untrained eye, ball-bearing guns like the one used in the attack look
every bit like a real firearm.
The potentially lethal weapons are often converted by criminals to fire real
bullets, and can be bought easily in high-street shops and on websites.
The Met said it was investigating the incident, which took place in South
Norwood, and that police searched a nearby house which the attacker was seen
going into.
No one has been arrested.
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