In the third apparently racially motivated act of violence in the LA area in just a few days, a Muslim teenager was stabbed twice on Sunday for the crime of walking around Huntington Beach with his brother-in-law. Young Karam Jarrah, 17, says he and his brother-in-law, Asem Dghem, were speaking Arabic before he was attacked.

“Was it like a racial issue? Is it because we were speaking Arabic or it can be like just the way we look,” wondered Jarrah.

The issue is made more disheartening by the fact that one of the people in the group of attackers was an Illinois police officer, Arthur Roman. He, his brother, Martin Roman, and Martin’s wife, Jessica Roman, approached the teens and began verbally accosting them. The officer’s brother, Martin, was the one who pulled out a knife shortly after and attacked.

“He was like, ‘What’s up ‘Obamabam?’ I don’t even know what that means,” Jarrah said. “So I said, ‘What?’ and he said, ‘What’s up ‘Obamabam?’ He said it like he was mad.”

Jarrah’s brother-in-law Asem Dghem said that they tried to be polite to the aggressors. Sadly, this was not the first time the Muslim teenager had been faced with Islamophobia in recent months.

“I came back very, very nicely, because we have faced this type of situation before,” Dghem explained.

That’s when the two said that Martin stabbed Jarrah twice.

“When I stood up, it was just like a fountain squirting blood, like blood everywhere,” said Jarrah. He was quickly taken to a local hospital and treated for his injuries.

The three suspects fled, but were quickly after arrested. Jarrah’s family sadly did not express much surprise that such hate would be directed towards them in this currently hysterical political climate. They were, however, floored that a police officer would take part in such senseless violence.

“They have to actually protect us, not stab us,” Dghem said. “He’s a police officer… He’s supposed to be role model.”

Hate crimes against Muslims tripled last year, with many of the attacks occurring after Donald Drumpf made his infamously racist proclamation that the America should close its borders to Muslims.

Investigators have yet to officially confirm that the “Obamabam” attackers were motivated by race.

Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW