Muslim nurse called racial epithets, then 'slashed' in road rage attack: Authorities

A Muslim nurse in a headscarf driving home from the night shift at a Houston hospital early Thursday morning claims she was confronted by two men, one of whom hissed racial epithets and slashed her before peeling off, authorities said.

The 25-year-old unidentified victim was behind the wheel of her car after clocking out at North Cypress Medical Center, according to a Harris County Sheriff's Office report.

While she was driving on Huffmeister Road in the White Oaks Falls neighborhood at around 1:30 a.m., a red SUV heading in the opposite direction, according to the report, "swerved into the victim's lane of traffic, narrowly missing her."

The woman navigated off the road, according to her account to deputies, and pulled into a parking lot "to compose herself."

That's when she saw the SUV whip a U-turn and charge toward the parking lot.

The driver of the SUV, described as a dark-haired man with a thin build and a "thick country accent," wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants, hopped out "wielding a knife and shouting ethnic slurs" at her, according to the report.

Some of the epithets included: "Oh my God, it's a r**head!", "It's a f----- r--head!", "sand n----", and "desert monkey," the Houston office of the Council on American Islamic Relations or CAIR-Houston revealed in a statement.

As the woman attempted to get seek refuge in her car through the passenger side door, she discovered it was locked, the CAIR statement added.

The statement added that the driver then waved the knife in her face and "hit her with his handle on her shoulder and arms."

The woman told sheriff's deputies that she "used her arm to shield herself" while the driver slashed her in the arm.

The assault ended when another man, who was riding shotgun in the red SUV also wearing dark pants and a white T-shirt, got out of the SUV and intervened by leading "the driver back into the vehicle," the sheriff's office said.

The two men then drove off, authorities said.

The slashed nurse then drove back to her hospital workplace where she was treated in the ER to get the laceration dressed, according to the sheriff's office report.

So far, Harris County Sheriff's have made no arrests in what they are calling a "possible hate crime" incident.

In CAIR-Houston's statement, the organization said it is offering $5,000 award "for information leading to the arrest and conviction of an apparently bias-motivated attempted murder of a Muslim woman."