LEWISTON, Maine --A police investigation into a claim that someone threw a substance in the face of a Somali runner during a regional cross-country race has raised fears of yet another racially charged incident targeting Lewiston Somalis.
A Vermont runner stepped forward to corroborate Mohamed Noor's story that somebody threw what appeared to be sand and dirt at the runners last weekend at the 73rd New England
Noor was among the favorites to win, but fell from second place early in the race to finish 124th. Afterward, he told his coach someone threw something in his face during the race.
Noor, who was vomiting after the race and had bloodshot eyes for several days afterward, was treated by ambulance attendants at the race course. He has not commented publicly on the incident.
Kyle Powers, a senior from St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont, said dirt was flying during the race, but he found it odd when a clump of sand and dirt hit the back of his head as he and Noor were entering the woods on the course. Powers finished eighth in the race.
Noor's mother told Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., that another Somali from Lewiston who was watching the race witnessed the assault.
The witness reported seeing the man throw something at Noor twice, but miss him the first time, Jamal said. The unidentified substance caused Noor to slow down, feel heavy and eventually collapse at the end of the race, Jamal said.
Noor's mother also said the man in the woods was the same man who approached Noor and Lewiston High School teammate Sadam Abdi before the race and tried to hand them biblical pamphlets, Jamal said.
Given those accounts, Jamal said it appears the attack was racially motivated. He said he will ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.
"We have to use the legal system to send a message to those who are driven by hatred and racial motives," Jamal said.
Lewiston High School Athletic Director Jason Fuller said Noor told his coach the man first threw something at him at the start line but missed before getting him in the woods. The race was like a "madhouse," Fuller said, with more than 300 runners and hundreds of spectators going this way and that.
Fuller said he doesn't know the motivation behind the attack, but could understand if people were calling it racially motivated.
"It's easy to make that jump," he said.
More than 3,000 Somali refugees have settled in Lewiston in recent years, giving the city the highest concentration of Somalis anywhere in the country.
The influx has created tensions, starting with a letter by then-Mayor Larry Raymond in 2002 asking the Somalis to advise their countrymen not to come to Lewiston because city resources were "maxed out."
Tensions ran high again last summer when a man tossed a pig's head into a mosque during evening prayers at the Lewiston-Auburn Islamic Center. Last April, a prank in which a middle-schooler tossed a piece of leftover Easter ham onto a table surrounded by Somalian Muslim youngsters exposed yet again the cultural divide in the city.
Noor, a senior and Maine's Class A cross-country champion, was among the leaders in the 3.1-mile race for the first mile but had dropped back in the pack by the second mile.
Paul Driscoll, a Lewiston booster who has a son on the cross-country team, said Noor received treatment that night at a Lewiston hospital, where a doctor said that either sand or a household cleaner could have caused the irritation to his eyes.
The incident is under investigation by the Cumberland Police Department. The investigating officer said after the incident that it appeared the perpetrator singled Noor out and was waiting for him in the woods.
The case will be referred to the state attorney general's office once the investigation is completed on the local level, said David Loughran, spokesman for the attorney general's office.
