A California couple were arrested on hate-crime charges after they yelled 'white power' during an episode of road rage, police say

• A California couple was arrested on hate-crime and vandalism charges on Friday, the Torrance Police Department said.
• Gregory and Rachel Howell are accused of yelling "white power" and "only white lives matter" at a Black man and his girlfriend in late July.
• "Never in my life did I think I was gonna experience this," the girlfriend, Itzel Lopez, told KTLA. "It's actually really scary. They don't even know you and they're willing to hurt you."

A California couple were arrested on Friday on hate-crime and vandalism charges after a racist confrontation in late July that "began as a road rage situation," the Torrance Police Department said.

On July 22 at about 10:30 p.m., a man and a woman stopped their truck in front of a car with Itzel Lopez and her boyfriend, who were driving home from a birthday dinner, Lopez told KTLA.

Lopez posted footage of the altercation on Instagram. In the video, a woman next to the car can be heard saying, "Only white lives matter, b----!" The man does the Nazi salute.

The department said in a press release that the man exited the truck, walked up to the car, and yelled "white power" while doing the salute, and that the woman also got out of the truck and yelled "only white lives matter."

The police said that the man hit the car with a shovel as Lopez and her boyfriend tried to drive away and that the woman damaged the driver's side mirror.

The next day, Lopez and her boyfriend, who is Black, filed a police report alleging a hate crime and vandalism.

The police arrested Gregory and Rachel Howell on Friday. They posted bail and were released the same day, NBC News reported.

"We were just in shock. We didn't know what was going on," Lopez told KTLA. "Never in my life did I think I was gonna experience this. It's actually really scary. They don't even know you and they're willing to hurt you."