Two Charged in Violent Hate Crime Against Deli Clerks

February 27, 2007

Source: KOMO-TV

http://www.komotv.com/news/6004201.html

SEATTLE - Two people have been charged under the state's hate crime law after a surveillance camera at Saleh's Delicatessen in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood caught a confrontation between two customers and two clerks during which racial slurs, obscenities and punches were thrown.

A Seattle man and a Shoreline woman were charged Thursday afternoon with malicious harassment. The two are accused of slinging words and punches at the clerks.

Surveillance footage shows a 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman trying to buy beer and cigarettes.

Steven Saleh and his nephew, Fares Kasim, were behind the counter. The men say the pair appeared drunk and quickly became belligerent.

"She said we were un-American and she started calling us names like 'Arabs' and 'go back to your country' and all that," Kasim said.

"Hey guess what? You're un-American. You can't," the woman is seen saying on tape.