Woman charged with hate crime for assaulting Palestinian man and pregnant woman at Downers Grove Panera

A woman is facing hate crime charges after she allegedly verbally abused a man wearing a hoodie with the word “Palestine” on it at a Downers Grove Panera restaurant.

Alexandra Szustakiewicz, a 64-year-old Darien woman, allegedly confronted the man and yelled expletives at him as she tried to hit his pregnant wife at the restaurant just before noon Saturday, Downers Grove police said.

A woman who was with the man began recording the incident on her cellphone, which Szustakiewicz allegedly tried to knock out of her hands, police said. The video was shared on social media.

Szustakiewicz was arrested at her home on Sunday and charged with two felony counts of hate crime and one count of disorderly conduct, police said. She was booked into the DuPage County Jail.

“This type of behavior is not tolerated in our community and never will be tolerated,” Downers Grove Police Chief Michael DeVries said in a statement.

One of the victims, Waseem Zahran, said he tried to de-escalate the situation several times, even after Szustakiewicz allegedly punched him in the face and tried to throw hot coffee on his wife, both before and after he hit him several times had waved at her. He said Szustakiewicz kept waving at his wife after telling Szustakiewicz his wife was pregnant. “I don’t care,” he says, she replied.

Zahran claims the woman said, “F– Palestine and f– you” after asking the couple if they were Palestinian.

Zahran said he and other Palestinians have come to expect this kind of behavior as a result of rampant Islamophobia in the US. Before he and his wife moved to Downers Grove a few months ago, they lived in Plainfield, just a few blocks from where they lived. -old Palestinian-American boy Wadee Alfayoumi was stabbed to death. The family’s landlord, Joseph Czuba, has been charged with the boy’s murder in October 2023.

Zahran says this isn’t the first time he’s been harassed over the sweatshirt, and he doesn’t expect it to be the last.

“Since I was a child, I have seen my mother being threatened, parents screaming, cousins ​​screaming, but it was the first time I was attacked,” Zahran said. “It is very well known in our community how serious this anti-Palestinian (sentiment) is.”

He said he has learned to “always be with the people,” but that even in the aftermath of Saturday’s attack, he was grateful for the community that supported him and his wife.

“I couldn’t make it without this community,” he said.

As for the allegations, he said he was pleasantly surprised that she had to deal with the consequences of the attack. Initially, Panera employees had come to her aid and treated her as a victim after she allegedly punched him and tried to hit his wife while shouting obscenities.

“She was the victim, even though they watched me get attacked for over a minute, it was quite disgusting,” Zahran said. “(So) I wasn’t sure if she was going to be charged, but justice is coming her way. It gives me a little hope for this society.”

Panera did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden temporarily released Szustakiewicz, including orders to have no contact with Zahran and his wife and not to enter the Panera where the incident occurred, according to the DuPage County Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Szustakiewicz is scheduled to be arraigned on December 16.

“Every member of society, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or other individual characteristics, deserves to be treated with respect and civility,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement. “This type of behavior and the prejudices that come with it have no place in a civilized society, and my office stands ready to bring appropriate charges in such cases.”

DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office/Provided

Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Chicago, condemned the attack in an emailed statement.

“We have long seen how European migrants like this woman have a bizarre sense of entitlement to regularly harass and accost indigenous Palestinians in their ancestral homeland, knowing that they enjoy complete impunity and knowing that their victims have no recourse ” said Rehab. “Now it is shocking but not surprising that that same anti-Palestinian hatred has followed them to their new homeland, here in America, where they were born and raised.”

Rehab said the incident reflects a larger pattern of hostility toward Palestinian Americans and the larger Muslim community, and that he welcomed the hate crime charges against Szustakiewicz.

“Fortunately, our country is a country of laws,” Rehab said. “This alleged shameful and offensive behavior must be understood and called out for what it is, not just in the horrific details, but in the context of the larger, hateful phenomenon from which it stems. It cannot and will not have a home here.”