Bail has been set at $1 million for a Fond du Lac man arrested in connection with what authorities say was an intentional head on fatal collision fueled by racism. Twenty seven year old Daniel Navarro made his initial Fond du Lac court appearance Thursday on a charge of First Degree Intentional Homicide with a Hate Crime enhancer. Investigators say last Friday evening Navarro was driving his father’s pickup truck when he crossed the center line on Winnebago Drive near Taycheeda Way striking a motorcycle, killing the operator, 55 year old Phillip Theissen, of Fond du Lac. Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt says Navarro admitted to investigators he intended to kill the motorcyclist. Waldschmidt says Navarro claims he has been the victim of racism over the last year and a half because he is Mexican. “Navarro told detectives that he believed he had been intentionally poisoned by co-workers and by a neighbor, that people drive by his house and rev their engines and squeal their tires just to try to upset him,” Waldschmidt said. According to a criminal complaint Navarro stated the recent events and racial climate in the United States contributed to what happened to him. “Navarro said if president Donald Trump and white people are going to create the world we are living in, he has no choice, and that people are going to have to die,” Waldschmidt said. The sheriff says investigators continue to gather evidence, tracing where Navarro was driving and his driving pattern prior to the crash, asking residents who live along Winnebago Drive with camera surveillance systems to call the Sheriff’s Office. Waldschmidt also says investigators do not believe the suspect and victim knew one another or that Navarro was aware that Theissen had retired recently as a police officer in Virginia. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 17.
