Woman faces hate crime charges after confronting man wearing 'Palestine'
shirt
Send a link to a friend
 [November 20, 2024]
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago woman faces
hate crime charges for allegedly confronting a Palestinian American man
wearing a sweatshirt with “Palestine” written on it and trying to knock
a cellphone out of his pregnant wife's hands as she recorded the
encounter, authorities and the man said.
Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, appeared in court Monday for her
arraignment on two felony hate crime counts and a misdemeanor disorderly
conduct charge. A DuPage County judge ordered the Darien woman to have
no contact with the victims and to stay away from the restaurant where
police said the confrontation occurred Saturday. Szustakiewicz's next
court hearing is set for Dec. 16.
There was no immediate response to a message left Tuesday for her public
defender, Kendall Pietrzak, seeking comment.
Szustakiewicz was at a Panera Bread restaurant in the Chicago suburb of
Downers Grove on Saturday “when she confronted and yelled expletives at
a man regarding a sweatshirt he was wearing with the word Palestine
written on it,” the DuPage County State's Attorney’s Office and Downers
Grove police said Monday in a statement.
She also allegedly “attempted to hit a cell phone out of the hands of a
woman who was with the man when the woman began videotaping the
incident,” it added.
A complaint filed against Szustakiewicz, who was arrested Sunday,
alleges that she “committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national
origin” of the two victims.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement that
“this type of behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a
civilized society.”
[to top of second column]
|
The man Szustakiewicz is accused of confronting said he was wearing
a hoodie with the word “Palestine” on it when she approached and
yelled expletives at him while trying to hit his pregnant wife, whom
he shielded as she filmed Szustakiewicz with her cellphone.
Waseem Zahran told the Chicago Sun-Times it was not the first time
he has been harassed for wearing the sweatshirt, and he expects it
won't be the last time.
“Since I was a child, I’ve seen my mom threatened, parents screamed
at, cousins yelled at. But it was a first for me to be attacked,”
Zahran told the newspaper.
He said he tried to deescalate the situation multiple times, even
after Szustakiewicz allegedly hit him in the face and attempted to
throw hot coffee on his wife before and after swinging at her
multiple times.
Zahran said Szustakiewicz continued swinging at his wife even after
he told her she was pregnant.
“I don’t care,” he said she replied.
He said in a statement Monday by the Chicago Office of the Council
on American-Islamic Relations that he is “a born and raised American
who took his wife out for lunch. I was not able to do that simply
because I was Palestinian.”
CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab condemned the attack.
“We have long seen how European migrants like this woman feel a
bizarre sense of entitlement to regularly harass and accost native
Palestinians in their ancestral homeland, knowing they enjoy full
impunity and knowing their victims have no recourse,” Rehab said in
the statement.
“Now, shockingly but not surprisingly, that same anti-Palestinian
hatred has followed them into their new homeland, here in America,
where they were born and raised."
All contents © copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
