USA Today: Illinois woman attacked man in Panera Bread for wearing Palestine sweatshirt, police say
By Thao Nguyen
An Illinois woman was charged with hate crimes after she attacked a man for wearing a sweatshirt with the word "Palestine" written on it at a suburban Chicago Panera Bread, prosecutors and officials said.
Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, of Darien, Illinois, was charged with two counts of hate crime and one count of disorderly conduct, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Downers Grove Chief of Police Michael DeVries announced in a statement Monday. The charges stem from an incident Saturday at a Panera Bread in Downers Grove, a village about 23 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
Downers Grove police said Szustakiewicz was at Panera Bread shortly before noon, local time, on Saturday when she "confronted and yelled expletives at a man" who was wearing a sweatshirt with the word "Palestine" written on it. Szustakiewicz then allegedly attempted to hit a cell phone out of the hands of a woman who was with the man when the woman began recording the encounter.
According to the statement, officers responded to a report of a disturbance at the Panera Bread, and Szustakiewicz was taken into custody the following day without incident. A complaint filed against Szustakiewicz alleged that she "committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin" of the two victims.
During her first court appearance Monday morning, a judge granted prosecutors' request that Szustakiewicz have no contact with the victims and that she may not enter the Panera Bread where the incident occurred, the statement said. Szustakiewicz is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 16 for arraignment.
"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 in a statement. "This type of behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a civilized society and my office stands ready to file the appropriate charges in such cases."
One year later:Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate incidents spike since Oct. 7 attacks
Civil rights organization: Victim shielded his wife from punches
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the incident on Monday. The organization called Szustakiewicz's behavior "shameful and abusive."
CAIR-Chicago said Szustakiewicz had verbally and physically attacked a couple, identified as Waseem and his pregnant wife, for wearing a Palestine hoodie. The organization added that Waseem "shielded his wife from several punching attempts" during the encounter.
The incident was captured on video, according to CAIR-Chicago, and shared on social media — including on X, where it garnered about 1.2 million views by Monday night.
In the video, a woman lunged at a person who recorded the incident with a cell phone. A man then attempted to stop the woman, pushing her back with his arm, asking: "What are you doing?"
The video then showed the woman trying to hit the man, with a beverage she held spilling onto the ground. The woman continued attempting to swipe at the victims while threatening to call the police.
Later, the man is heard telling the woman to stop. Footage then showed the woman approaching the cash register, asking an employee to call the police.
Moments later, the woman is captured on video trying to hit the person recording the incident, with the man stepping in between them. The man is heard telling the woman: "Get away from my wife."
The man and the person recording the video are then seen walking away from the woman, while she appears to follow them. The video then shows the man pushing the woman back, prompting both to threaten to punch each other.
"I'm a born and raised American who took his wife out for lunch. I was not able to do that simply because I was Palestinian,” Waseem told CAIR-Chicago.
Latest incident amid surge in Islamophobia, hate crimes
CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said Saturday's incident along with other recent hate incidents across the U.S. "reflect a broader pattern of hostility and intolerance towards Palestinian Americans and the Muslim community at large."
Between January and June 2024, CAIR documented nearly 5,000 incoming bias complaints nationwide — a 69% increase of recorded complaints from the same period in 2023. The organization also released a report earlier this year, which found that CAIR received the "highest number of complaints it has ever received in its 30-year history" last year.
The report documented more than 8,000 complaints regarding anti-Muslim hate and nearly half of those complaints were reported in the final three months of 2023. The report noted that the wave of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim incidents is primarily due to the escalation of violence in Gaza following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Numerous incidents have sparked fear among Muslim-American and Arab-American communities. About a week after the Oct. 7 attack, an Illinois man was charged with a hate crime after he fatally stabbed a 6-year-old and seriously injured the child's mother in what authorities said was a violent response to the Israel-Hamas war.
In April, prosecutors said a New Jersey man was convicted of hate crimes after he attacked a Muslim man near a New York City food cart. A Texas woman was charged in June after authorities said she tried to drown a Muslim child at an apartment complex pool.
Last month, a New York City woman was indicted for an anti-Muslim attack after she pepper sprayed an Uber driver earlier this year, according to prosecutors.