FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Wilton Manors man accused of a hate-fueled attack on a Muslim postal worker delivering mail in Fort Lauderdale in October is now facing a federal charge.
Federal prosecutors charged Kenneth Jerome Pinkney, already facing state charges of battery with prejudice and evidencing prejudice while committing a second degree felony, with assault of a federal employee.
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Pinkney, 47, was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Wednesday morning following his arrest on the new charge Tuesday. He had bonded out of jail on the state charges in December, Broward court records show.
Officials said the postal worker, also 47, was delivering mail on her route on Oct. 24 and had gotten out of her vehicle when Pinkney came up to her on a bicycle.
He first “made a hand gesture towards her in the shape of a firearm using two fingers to represent the barrel of a gun,” leading the mail carrier to believe he needed food or water, prosecutors said.
When she asked him if he needed help, Pinkney turned his bicycle around, began “gesturing more assertively,” then got off his bike and walked towards her, a criminal complaint states.
Authorities said Pinkney made a comment about wanting a gun at that moment and said that the postal worker, who was wearing a hijab, “should leave the country.”
The worker got back into her vehicle while Pinkney continued to make comments, the complaint states. Authorities said he then spit on the eagle logo on the side of the mail truck and then spit on the mail carrier.
Pinkney then “reached into the truck and pulled at the victim’s ankle and leg in an unsuccessful attempt to yank her from the USPS truck,” the court documents state.
He then “entered the truck and grabbed the victim’s neck with one hand and placed his other hand on her hijab,” and tried removing it by pulling it down her face, authorities said; the “nervous and scared” mail carrier resisted the attack.
“Unable to remove the hijab in this fashion, (Pinkney) then lifted the hijab up past the victim’s face toward the back of the victim’s head,” authorities wrote in the criminal complaint. “(He) succeeded in removing the hijab and revealing the victim’s hair.”
The victim eventually put the hijab back on and exited the vehicle amid the struggle; all the while, Pinkney continued to make “derogatory statements about the victim’s religion,” the complaint states.
Out of the vehicle, Pinkney hit the postal worker and the two continued to struggle, prosecutors said. Eventually, the two separated and the postal worker said she was calling 911; Pinkney called 911 too, according to authorities.
Police would later locate and arrest Pinkney at his Wilton Manors apartment.
Records show he was previously convicted of felony battery in 1996.
As of Wednesday, Pinkney was being held in the North Broward Bureau jail on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to jail records.