New video released in alleged hate crime attack on Palestinian couple at Panera in Downers Grove, Illinois
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Newly released videos have revealed additional details in the argument that led to hate crime charges against a woman accused of assaulting a Palestinian-American couple at a Panera Bread restaurant in Downers Grove.
The original cell phone video of the incident went viral, but police body camera footage and surveillance video obtained by CBS News Chicago show parts of the argument the cell phone video left out.
In the moments before the argument started at the Panera Bread on Lemont Road in Downers Grove, Waseem Zahran and his wife can be seen walking up to the counter. He was wearing a sweatshirt that read "Palestine" on the back.
The couple crossed paths with Alexandra Szustakiewicz, who was carrying a coffee in her hand. She returned and seemed to say something to them, while gesturing toward them with her keys in her right hand. Zahran has said she had whispered an expletive about Palestine.
As the argument continues Zahran put his arm in front of his wife while she grabbed her phone to record the encounter. Zahran has said he was protecting his wife from having coffee tossed on her.
The rest of their exchange was caught on another Panera camera, and police body camera video showed Szustakiewicz's arrest the next day.
"You're trying to arrest me?" she asked as she denied hate crime charges against her. "I didn't do anything. I just … he he he just just just stepped in front of me, and I said, 'Well, I don't like what you're wearing.'"
She was charged with two felony hate crime counts and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
"You see that he was pushing. He was pushing me all the time. If he would have just let me go, it would just be over," she said.
Szustakiewicz, 64, was granted release after her arrest, but has been barred from entering the Panera Bread where the incident took place.
She is due back in court on Dec. 16.
