Group wants hate crime charges in restaurant attack
A Muslim advocacy group in Minnesota is calling for hate crime charges to be filed in an attack on a woman at a restaurant in suburban Minneapolis.
A criminal complaint says Jodie Burchard-Risch is accused of striking the Muslim woman with a beer mug after becoming upset that the victim was talking in a foreign language.
The complaint says Burchard-Risch was sitting in a nearby booth at Applebee's restaurant in Coon Rapids Oct. 30, overheard the woman talking and began yelling at her before attacking her. Burchard-Risch is charged with third-degree assault in Anoka County District Court.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Friday called for additional charges of a hate crime, saying the woman suffered deep cuts to her face. A phone listing for Burchard-Risch went unanswered.
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