Kentucky man charged with hate crime for pulling gun on Palestinian American

July 22 (UPI) -- A Kentucky man was arrested and charged Monday with a federal hate crime for pulling a loaded gun on a Palestinian American at a restaurant in March.

The Justice Department said in a statement that an indictment was unsealed Monday accusing Melvin Litteral III of threatening a Palestinian American man and practicing Muslim while they were "enjoying the goods, services and facilities of a local restaurant" on March 28.

Little about the crime was revealed by the Justice Department, but local reports published following the incident state it occurred at the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen on Walden Drive in Lexington.

The victim in the court document is identified as O.S. Following the incident, Omar Shalash identified himself as the victim in a lengthy post on X, screen shots of which were published online by LEX 18.

In the post, Shalash states he and his wife were at the restaurant to break their fast when harassed by a man who was making racist and anti-Muslim remarks.

Shalash said he attempted to confront the man about his comment who then pushed him and produced a firearm.

"He pulled a gun out of his pocket and stuck it to my head and asked me, 'Do you want to die, Arabia?'" Shalash said.

Officers with the Lexington Police Department took Litteral into custody that night at his home, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported in the days following his arrest.

According to police cited in the report, Litteral tried to slam his front door on the arresting officers and then used his body to prevent their entrance. He then resisted arrest by not willingly giving up his hands to be handcuffed.

The federal prosecutors have charged Litteral with a hate crime offense and a second firearms charge. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for the hate crime offense and a mandatory minimum penalty of seven years in prison to run consecutively for the firearm offense.

The alleged crime occurred amid Israel's war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and a spike in hate incidents directed at Palestinians and Muslims in the United States.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, it received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of last year, starting with October, which is when the Israel-Hamas war began.

"We welcome the hate crime charge in this case and thank federal law enforcement authorities for their swift and professional actions to apprehend a suspect," CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said Monday in a statement .

"No American should be targeted by hatred or violence because of their religion, ethnicity or national origin. Our country has been consumed by a wildfire of anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry spread by those who seek to justify the genocide in Gaza by dehumanizing Palestinians and Muslims. It must stop."