Louisiana, California police investigate reported hate crimes on Muslim women

Editors Note: Police now say the woman in this Louisiana case made up the story. Read the updated report here.

Investigators are looking into reports that two Muslim women wearing traditional Islamic headscarves were assaulted and robbed on college campuses in California and Louisiana on Wednesday.

Police at San Diego State University received a report from a woman who said she was followed by two men on Wednesday who were making remarks about President-elect Donald Trump and Muslims.

The woman, a student at SDSU, told police the men grabbed her purse, stole her car keys and took off. When police arrived to investigate, her vehicle was missing.

Campus police said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime. The woman was not injured.

Police at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette said they were investigating a potential hate crime against a female student, who told authorities she was assaulted and robbed by two men who also made off with her Islamic headscarf, called a hijab. Photo courtesy University of Louisiana-Lafayette/Facebook

A similar incident was reported 1,700 miles away on the campus of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where a female Muslim student told police she was assaulted by two men and robbed.

The 18-year-old woman said she was knocked to the ground with something metal and verbally assaulted with obscenities before the attackers made off with her wallet and headscarf. She was not injured.

Custodians at the Lafayette campus have also had to clean inflammatory graffiti at the center of campus, purporting to support Trump.

"Education is the most effective weapon we have to fight prejudice and to open minds that are closed," ULL President Joseph Savoie said Wednesday, without specifically mentioning the reported incident.

Authorities at both campuses continue to investigate the incidents.