Man charged with racist threats toward gas station clerk

BREMERTON — A Port Townsend man is accused of calling a Bremerton gas station clerk racial slurs, threatening to kill him and chasing him after becoming upset that he had to wait to use the restroom.

Bremerton police were called Sunday afternoon to a 76 gas station when the clerks called 911, the Kitsap Sun reported.

They said a man, later identified as Aaron Mylan, asked to use the restroom but became upset when he was told he had to wait.

Mylan, who is white, screamed at the clerks, focusing on one he believed was Asian and began using racial slurs, court documents said. When the clerk said he was Native American, Mylan called him the n-word, according to court documents.

Mylan left and then returned to the store. The clerks tried to lock him out, but he “forced” his way inside, threatened to kill everyone and chased a clerk out of the store, according to court documents.

An officer who found Mylan nearby wrote that Mylan appeared “agitated” and “elevated” and may have been under the influence of drugs or experiencing a mental health crisis.

He was arrested and Monday prosecutors charged him with a hate crime. It wasn’t immediately known if Mylan has a lawyer to comment on the case.