An Illinois man was accused of a hate crime for allegedly verbally abusing and threatening to shoot two Muslim men Thursday.
Larry York, 46, of Lombard, Ill., has been denied pretrial release after being charged with two counts of hate crime, a Class 4 Felony, according to a DuPage County news release.
During the incident, York reportedly “approached” a vehicle in which one of the victims was waiting for his friend at an apartment complex before he “asked the victim what he was doing there and then began swearing at the man and telling him he did not belong in this country and to leave.”
“It is alleged York punched the man’s car window and then walked back to the lobby of the building,” the release read. York reportedly also swore at another victim in the lobby and threatened to beat him, and he lifted the end of a bench one of the victims was sitting on, “causing the man seated on the bench to fall to the ground.”
York then reportedly threatened to shoot the two men, the release notes.
“It is further alleged that during the incident, York threatened the men saying ‘f**k you f***ing Muslim motherf*****s. This is America. Get the f*** out of here. I’ll shoot you, motherf****s, get out of here.’”
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), applauded the police in a statement following the incident.
“We thank law enforcement for swiftly apprehending and charging the suspect in this disturbing incident,” Rehab said in the statement. “This is a standard to follow if we are to stand a chance of deterrence. CAIR-Chicago has been inundated with hate incidents not seen since 9/11. There is widespread palpable apprehension in the community.”
The alleged event comes in the wake of another recent incident over which an Illinois man was charged with murder and hate crimes after he allegedly killed a 6-year-old boy and injured his mother in a stabbing. The apparent hate crime arose from the recent Israel-Hamas conflict and the mother and son being Muslim, authorities said.