Robert Tackett, a 54-year-old Irvine man, has been charged with attacking two Hispanic men in hate motivated attacks, throwing a cup of hot coffee on one man while driving and getting out of his van to punch an elderly driver repeatedly at a stop light while hurling racial slurs.
Tackett has been charged with one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, one felony count of violation of civil rights, one felony count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, and one felony count of inflicting injury on an elder adult.
He faces a maximum sentence of eight years in state prison if convicted on all counts. He is currently being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
On July 22, around 9:30 a.m., a driver in Irvine began filming after he noticed a man having a negative interaction with the driver of a garbage truck. The man, later identified as Tackett, is accused of following him in his work van, yelling anti-Hispanic racial slurs as he pulled up next to the victim and tried to run him off the road. He is also accused of trying to slam into the other driver’s vehicle, forcing the victim to slam on his brakes twice to avoid a collision.
After two failed attempts to crash into the victim, Tackett is accused of throwing a hot cup of coffee into the victim’s vehicle, dousing the victim with hot coffee.
The victim did not call law enforcement but was identified after he posted his video to social media.
Around 5:30 p.m. the same day, Tackett is accused of getting out of his work van while stopped at a stop light in Westminster and punching a 72-year-old driver repeatedly through the open window of the victim’s pickup truck while yelling profanity and anti-Hispanic slurs. The elderly driver attempted to block Tackett from punching him.
Another driver recorded the attack and later contacted the Irvine Police Department after video of the first attack was published on social media.
Tackett was identified and arrested by the California Highway Patrol on July 24 in Mammoth.
