Utah man charged with hate crime after attack on Muslim mall employee

(CN) — A man who attacked a Muslim worker in what some have described as a brutal hate crime at a shopping mall in West Valley City on July 13 is being charged with attempted murder, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office announced Friday.

Peter Michael Larsen, 48, of Taylorsville, Utah, is charged with two counts of first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder and one count of third-degree felony prohibited dangerous weapon conduct, the district attorney’s office said.

The incident occurred at the Valley Fair Mall when Larsen reportedly attacked the victim, described in media reports only as Sohail, at a mall kiosk after learning he was Muslim, a police detective wrote in a probable cause declaration.

Sohail later told police detectives that Larsen approached him at his kiosk and first asked him for water. Larsen then asked where he was from, and Sohail told him he was from India. Larsen then asked if he was Muslim, which Sohail confirmed.

Larsen reportedly said: “Everything is like Jesus Christ,” and began stabbing the victim in the head, neck, chest, arm and hand with what witnesses described as a 4-inch blade with brass knuckles attached to it, according to the probable cause declaration. Police said Sohail had about a dozen wounds on his body.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill condemned the religiously motivated attack.

“In the United States of America, we live in a pluralistic society,” Gill said in a press release. “We live alongside people who may come from different cultures, have different religious beliefs and may not share our exact view of the world, but we still believe in the promise of our country that you can come here and make your own American dream. An alleged unprovoked attack on anyone in our community is unacceptable, but an attack allegedly motivated because of the victim’s religion is alarming.”

In an interview with police, Larsen said he planned the night before to go to the mall to make an example of Muslims and to be a catalyst to rid the country of what he described as an infestation, the declaration said.

Larsen told police he planned to decapitate Sohail and throw his head down the mall’s hallway and that he wanted to eat his heart in a dramatic fashion. He told police he wanted to kill as many Muslims at the mall as possible as an inspiration to others.

Among Utah’s population of 3.5 million people, Muslims account for less than 1%.

Larsen also told police he planned to be arrested.

“I just did attempted murder,” he told police in the probable cause declaration. “I’ve never done anything like that before, but I think the country’s worth it and there needs to be something done.”

Bystanders who were present attempted to restrain Larsen after he began the attack and resorted to throwing things at him. A friend of Sohail’s attempted to intervene and was cut in the arm. Larsen reportedly told him he was next.

A group of men ultimately restrained Larsen while one of them punched him in the head until he was unconscious. The footage was also captured and shared online.

Larsen reportedly rode his scooter to the mall, saw a movie and purchased the weapon before attacking Sohail, whom he told police he had spoken with in the past.

“This conduct is not only an alleged attack on the two victims, but it’s also an attack on the values and ideals that bind us as a community and one that still welcomes the stranger,” Gill continued in the press release on Friday. “We appreciate the work of West Valley City Police Department detectives whose investigation helped lead to the filing of these charges.”

The Council on Islamic American Relations condemned the attack shortly after it happened.

“This horrific attack is yet another reminder that anti-Muslim rhetoric has real-world consequences,” the council’s national director, Nihad Awad, said in a statement. “When Muslims are routinely demonized, portrayed as threats, or treated as less deserving of equal rights and dignity, some twisted individuals inevitably act on that hatred. Our nation’s political and community leaders have a moral responsibility to reject anti-Muslim hate in all its forms before more innocent people are harmed.”

Larsen has additional criminal convictions related to guns and domestic violence going back to 2021 and was on parole during the attack, according to Utah court records. Court records show he got into an armed standoff with police in 2022 and was shot.

Larsen is being held without bail.

Details about forthcoming court dates were not available.