East Palo Alto Man Faces 14 Hate Crime Charges for Targeting Hindu Women's Gold Jewelry

South Asian residents across the Palo Alto area were confronted with a troubling pattern of targeted violence after prosecutors charged an East Palo Alto man with more than a dozen hate crimes for robbing older Hindu women of their ceremonial gold jewelry over two months. The case drew urgent response from the Hindu American Foundation, whose advocates noted the community had been left feeling vulnerable and fearful. On a different front, a local restaurant called Ettan has been carving out a distinctive identity on Palo Alto's Bryant Street by merging California dining sensibilities with South Asian culinary tradition.

East Palo Alto Man Charged in Hate Crime Spree Targeting Hindu Women's Gold Jewelry

An East Palo Alto man named Lathan Johnson, 37, was charged by the Santa Clara County District Attorney with more than a dozen hate crimes after prosecutors determined he had spent approximately two months systematically targeting Hindu women of Indian descent across Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Johnson had a prior criminal record in both counties and was held without bail following his court appearance, which media including ABC7 News observed. According to the district attorney's office, Johnson targeted at least 14 women, deliberately selecting victims who wore traditional attire and gold jewelry as identifiers of their Hindu identity. The women ranged in age from 50 to 73 years old. The robberies were marked by significant violence beyond simple theft: in multiple incidents, Johnson is alleged to have broken the wrists of victims and physically beaten their husbands while removing the jewelry. District Attorney Jeff Rosen described the offenses as fundamentally worse than ordinary property crime because of the physical injury, terror, and targeting of entire households. Gold jewelry holds profound ceremonial and spiritual significance for Hindu women, often worn during religious observance and representing generational wealth passed down across families. Samir Kalra of the Hindu American Foundation spoke outside the courthouse, stating that the South Asian community had been left feeling vulnerable and fearful by the attacks. He praised the DA's decision to bring hate crime charges, calling the prosecution an important signal of accountability, and urged other Bay Area counties to apply hate crime statutes consistently when prosecuting crimes targeting Asian Americans on the basis of religion or ethnicity. Kalra noted the community had been experiencing an increase in both physical hate crimes and anti-Hindu hostility online. With several significant Indian festivals approaching, advocates called on community members to remain alert and urged law enforcement across the region to treat this pattern of religious targeting with the seriousness it warranted. [2]

🍛 Ettan Brings Cal-Indian Cuisine to Palo Alto's Bryant Street

Ettan, situated at 518 Bryant Street in downtown Palo Alto, brought a dining concept its coverage described as Cal-Indian cuisine to one of the Peninsula's most active restaurant corridors. Before pandemic restrictions altered dining across the region, the restaurant created a distinctive presence on Bryant Street that was detectable from the sidewalk itself: pedestrians walking past reported hearing music drifting from the establishment, a blend of rhythmic electronic sounds and contemporary Indian songs that set Ettan apart from neighboring restaurants and communicated something immediate about its blended cultural identity. Verde Magazine, the student-run news and features publication of Palo Alto High School, covered Ettan as part of its cultural reporting, a reflection of how much local interest the restaurant's Indian-California fusion concept had generated within the community. When Santa Clara County issued shelter-in-place orders as part of its public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ettan closed its dining room in compliance with those requirements, joining the vast majority of the area's independent restaurants in adapting to the new reality. The restaurant shifted to offering takeout and delivery service only, maintaining its connection to customers while the county order remained in effect. The Cal-Indian approach that Ettan represents speaks to a broader dynamic in Palo Alto's dining landscape, where a large South Asian professional population has created sustained demand for restaurants that reflect cultural heritage while incorporating local California ingredients and contemporary presentation. Bryant Street, where Ettan is located, sits at the heart of Palo Alto's walkable downtown, placing the restaurant within easy reach of South Asian families who live and work in the area as well as the broader Palo Alto audience curious about Indian-inspired California cooking. Ettan's presence on one of the city's most prominent dining streets signaled a meaningful degree of mainstream visibility for South Asian cuisine in Palo Alto. [3]

Sources: [2] ABC7 Bay Area · [3] Verde Magazine