New details emerge in alleged Igo hate crime case

On July 8, 2025, a Shasta County Sheriff responded to a possible shooting in the 100–person town of Igo, in rural Shasta County. According to the police report, obtained by Shasta Scout via the courts, 68-year-old Timothy Ray Thompson is alleged to have shot at a Spanish–speaking family in front of their house while yelling about them “being Mexican.” He was apprehended soon after by a SWAT team near his residence in Igo and booked in the Shasta County Jail. 

Last week on Oct. 7, Thompson’s preliminary hearing concluded. He’s being held to answer for 16 felony charges and a single misdemeanor charge. Those charges include assault with a firearm, child abuse, violation of civil rights, and illegal possession of a short barrelled rifle. The penalties for some of his charges may be increased, if a jury finds Thompson guilty of committing a hate crime.

The July incident terrified the affected family and rattled neighbors and advocates. At a debrief organized by the Shasta Equal Justice Coalition shortly after the incident, Imam Abubakr Salhuddin shared warnings about the consequences that hateful political rhetoric can have on vulnerable communities. The Shasta County Sheriff responded with their own press release that declared the seriousness of this case, emphasizing that “hate has no home in Shasta County.”  

The state of California defines hate crimes as “a crime against a person, group, or property motivated by the victim’s real or perceived protected social group,” such as one’s “(1) disability, (2) gender, (3) nationality, (4) race or ethnicity, (5) religion, (6) sexual orientation, and (7) association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics.”  

The county’s decision to charge some of Thompson’s actions as hate crimes was the subject of debate among the public, with some community members questioning the legitimacy of hate crimes as a separate category. Legally speaking, hate crimes are not a charge in and of themselves, but an enhancement added onto an existing allegation – making the punishment for the crime more severe, if proven true. 

Thompson’s complaint file, which contains the police report, lays out the narrative of events from the perspective of the officer who responded to the scene. It contains several alleged details that may shed light on why Shasta’s district attorney views the incident as a possible hate crime. 

What does the police report tell us? 

The police report details interactions the responding officers had with the alleged victims, witnesses, and the alleged assailant Thompson, as told by Sheriff Deputy Kyle Corrigan. It is a single piece of evidence that will be used by both the prosecution and defense, one of whom will seek to prove the allegations while the other scrutinizes them. The police report states that exact quotes from witness testimonies were captured by the officers’ body-worn cameras, noting that quotes in the report are paraphrases.

When officers arrived at the crime scene, the report says, they found a mother and father with their three children – aged 5, 8, and 10 – outside their home. One of the three children, whose name was redacted from the report, informed the officer that Thompson, who was unknown to them at the time, “wanted to kill us too.”

Because Corrigan couldn’t communicate in Spanish with the adults, he connected the family with detective Salazar, a Spanish speaker, via phone. From Salazar’s translation, Corrigan learned that the entire family had been outside at the time of the alleged shooting. The mother told Salazar that the suspect drove down the hill and yelled “you fucking Mexicans,” stating that he was going to kill them. She said she heard two gun shots ring out prompting her to grab her kids and run for cover, before she heard another three. The police report does not note the actual background of the family to indicate whether they have a connection to Mexico or another Spanish–speaking country. 

The children’s father said he immediately drove his pickup truck in front of his residence to create a barricade. Later, a deputy used digital mapping tools to determine that Thompson was 400 feet from the family when he allegedly shot at them while seated in his car. 

Both parents told Corrigan that they did not recognize the suspect. Instead, the deputy was informed by a witness who said he knew the alleged shooter’s name and where he lived. The witness described the suspect as “highly unstable,” and warned Corrigan that the suspect might try to harm officers upon contact. The witness said he had heard automatic gunfire in the vicinity of Thompson’s residence multiple times, including the Sunday before the July 8 incident. He told Deputy Corrigan that he “always knew [the suspect] would do something like this.” 

Another witness in the area, who recognized Thompson as he drove towards the family’s home, told Corrigan he confronted the suspect right after the shooting. Allegedly, Thompson responded to his rebuke by stating, “they’re just fucking Mexicans.” The statement upset the witness who then attempted to hit Thompson with his walking stick before the shooter fled. The witness added that he saw a shotgun in the passenger seat of Thompson’s car, and that Thompson was completely nude. 

Soon after, the SWAT team surrounded Thompson’s property and entered with a warrant that was issued due to probable cause. Inside the house Thompson was nowhere to be found. But the report says officers discovered multiple illegal firearms: including a used unserialized AR-15 and a short barreled shotgun. Outside in a shed on the property, a woman was located. She told police she was temporarily living with Thompson and had barricaded herself in his shed earlier in the day, because, she alleged, Thompson had been acting erratically and threatened to kill her. She told police that he was likely located in a trailer about 500 feet away from the residence. 

That trailer is where officers say they located, detained, and arrested Thompson a few short hours after the alleged shooting incident. Thompson was still naked at the time of his arrest, the report says, indicating that he was provided with clothes when he was booked into the jail. 

On Oct. 20, Thompson will appear in court to offer a plea in response to the multiple charges against him.

---

Do you have information or a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.