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Woman charged with hate crimes in alleged Panera Bread attack over man’s Palestinian hoodie
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Woman charged with hate crimes in alleged Panera Bread attack over man’s Palestinian hoodie

How Panera Bread ditched California's new $20 minimum wage law (Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

A Panera Bread restaurant.

An Illinois woman is facing hate crime charges after authorities say she attacked a man for wearing a Palestinian sweatshirt at a suburban Chicago Panera Bread over the weekend.

Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, of Darien, Illinois, is charged with two counts of hate crime and disorderly conduct, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Downers Grove Police head Michael DeVries said in a statement on Monday.

In court Monday, a judge granted prosecutors’ requests that Szustakiewicz have no contact with the victims and stay away from Panera Bread in Downers Grove, where the incident occurred around noon Saturday, the statement said.

“Szustakiewicz was at Panera Bread when he confronted and yelled abuse at a man about a sweatshirt he was wearing that had the word Palestine written on it,” authorities said. “Szustakiewicz is also alleged to have attempted to knock a mobile phone out of the hands of a woman who was with the man when the woman began recording the incident.”

The county public defender represented Szustakiewicz in court on Monday. No one at the office could immediately be reached to comment on her behalf.

Alexandra Szustakiewicz. (DuPage County)Alexandra Szustakiewicz. (DuPage County)

Alexandra Szustakiewicz.

Szustakiewicz committed a hate crime because of the “perceived national origin” of the victims, the statement said.

“Every member of society, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or any other individual characteristic, deserves to be treated with respect and civility,” Berlin said. “This type of behavior and the prejudice that accompanies it has no place in a civilized society and my office is prepared to file the appropriate charges in such cases.”

In a video posted on Xwhich Downers Grove police have confirmed as authentic and related to the allegations against Szustakiewicz, a woman lunges at someone holding a phone recording the incident, while a man tries to stop her. The woman takes at least one shot at the man, and a drink she’s holding spills onto the ground when the man smashes her cup to prevent it from reaching the recorder.

The woman threatens to call the police and then tries to go after the person recording again as the man repeatedly asks her to stop.

The man is heard on the recording telling the woman: “Get away from my wife.”

The woman, according to the video, then goes up to the cash register and asks an employee to call the police.

The woman then walks up to the woman holding the camera and the man steps in between them and pushes the woman, and both the man and the woman threaten to hit each other, according to the video.

The video has garnered over 1 million views.

Szustakiewicz and her relatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR, said in a statement that the incident started because one of the victims was wearing a Palestinian hoodie.

The male victim, whom CAIR identified as Waseem, said in the statement: “I am a born and raised American who took my wife to lunch. I couldn’t do that simply because I was Palestinian.”

CAIR said the victim was pregnant and called the behavior “disgraceful” and “abusive.”

No one with Panera Bread could immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon.