{"id":26169,"date":"2025-10-29T13:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/26169\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:35:21","slug":"houston-activists-push-da-to-consider-hate-crime-against-man-who-used-racial-slurs-spat-on-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/26169\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston activists push DA to consider hate crime against man who used racial slurs, spat on woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Houston community activists are urging the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a> to review and upgrade charges against a man accused of assaulting a Black woman following a minor traffic crash.<\/p>\n

The confrontation began after the woman backed into Ronald Preston Gorham\u2019s vehicle, according to court records. Both drivers pulled into a nearby gas station, where the situation escalated and was captured on video.<\/p>\n

Activists say Gorham used racial slurs, spat on the woman, and physically assaulted her. He is currently charged with assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is unacceptable and we are calling him out,\u201d activist Candice Matthews said during a demonstration outside the suspect\u2019s home. \u201cWe want him to know that Black women are protected and that Black women will be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

A warrant has been issued for Gorham\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

KPRC 2 reached out to the district attorney\u2019s office to ask whether prosecutors plan to pursue hate crime charges. A spokesperson said the case remains under investigation and that hate crime determinations are not typically made at the intake stage.<\/p>\n

The activists say they will continue to push for accountability and stronger charges as the investigation continues.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

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Government shutdown threatens SNAP benefits for nearly 900,000 HoustoniansTexans could lose SNAP benefits if Congress fails to reach a deal by tomorrow<\/p>\n

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Timeline for Saturday’s severe stormsPrevious photoNext photo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Houston community activists are urging the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office to review and upgrade charges against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[294,17250,18304,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-26169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-crime","tag-harris-county-district-attorneys-office","tag-hate-crime","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}