Alexandra Szustakiewicz Charged With Hate Crime at Panera Bread

Alexandra Szustakiewicz, a 64-year-old woman from Darien, Illinois, was charged with felony hate crimes after allegedly assaulting a Palestinian American couple at a Panera Bread in Downers Grove in November 2024. The incident, recorded on a cell phone and widely shared online, led to six felony hate crime counts. Szustakiewicz pleaded not guilty and, as of the most recent reported court date, remained free on pretrial release.¹

What Happened at the Downers Grove Panera

On the morning of November 16, 2024, Waseem Zahran and his pregnant wife were eating lunch at the Panera Bread at 7361 Lemont Road in Downers Grove. According to Zahran, Szustakiewicz approached them, whispered an expletive about Palestine, and then asked if they were Palestinian before saying, “F— Palestine and f— you.” Zahran said she had taken issue with a sweatshirt he was wearing that featured the word “Palestine.”²³

Zahran said Szustakiewicz hit him in the face, tried to throw hot coffee on his wife, and swung at her multiple times. When he told her his wife was pregnant, she allegedly replied, “I don’t care.” He said he tried repeatedly to deescalate and shielded his wife from several punches.⁴⁵

Zahran’s wife began recording seconds after the altercation started. The footage shows Szustakiewicz attempting to slap Zahran and lunging at his pregnant wife.³ Surveillance video from inside the restaurant later showed Szustakiewicz initially walking past the couple, then turning back to confront them while gesturing with keys in her hand.⁶

The Arrest and What She Told Police

Downers Grove police took Szustakiewicz into custody without incident the next day, November 17, 2024, at her home.⁷ Body camera footage recorded her denials during the arrest. “You’re trying to arrest me? I didn’t do anything,” she told officers. “I just … he just stepped in front of me, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t like what you’re wearing.'” She also claimed Zahran had been pushing her and that “if he would have just let me go, it would just be over.”⁶

The Charges

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Downers Grove Chief of Police Michael DeVries announced the charges on November 18, 2024. Szustakiewicz was initially charged with two counts of hate crime, each a Class 4 felony, and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct. The complaint alleged she “committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin” of the two victims.⁷

Berlin said the “behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a civilized society and my office stands ready to file the appropriate charges in such cases.”⁷

By the time of her arraignment on December 16, 2024, the case had been expanded to six felony counts of hate crime. Szustakiewicz pleaded not guilty to all six.¹ Available reporting did not detail the reasons for the additional counts.

Pretrial Release and Case Status

At her first court appearance in Wheaton on November 18, 2024, Judge Joshua Dieden granted pretrial release with conditions: no contact with the victims, and no entering the Panera Bread where the incident occurred.⁸ After the December 16 arraignment before Judge Mia McPherson, she remained on pretrial release, with her next court date set for February 4, 2025.¹ No plea deal or trial date has been reported.

What Illinois Hate Crime Law Carries

Under Illinois law, a person commits a hate crime by committing an offense such as assault, battery, or disorderly conduct because of the actual or perceived race, religion, national origin, or other protected characteristic of the victim. The statute applies whether or not other motives were also present.⁹

A first hate crime offense is a Class 4 felony. On conviction, the court must order restitution or a fine, at least 200 hours of community service, and in-person enrollment in an educational program addressing hate crimes tied to the protected class involved. Victims may also pursue civil damages separately, including punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation.⁹ No civil suit by the couple against Szustakiewicz or Panera has been reported.

The Victim’s Account

Zahran described himself as a “born and raised American” of Palestinian descent. “I’m a born and raised American who took his wife out for lunch. I was not able to do that simply because I was Palestinian,” he told reporters.⁵

He also criticized how Panera employees reacted. Workers, he said, initially “came to her aid and treated her as the victim” after watching him be attacked for over a minute, which he called “kind of disgusting.”⁴ Separate reporting said Szustakiewicz was seen asking Panera employees to call the police during the encounter.¹⁰ Panera did not respond to media requests for comment at the time.

After the charges were filed, Zahran said, “I wasn’t sure if she was going to be charged, but justice is coming for her. It makes me have a little hope for this society.”²

The Wider Pattern in Illinois

The case surfaced amid rising anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hostility in the United States after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. A 2025 report from the Chicago Commission on Human Relations found that anti-Muslim hate crimes nationally rose 18 percent in 2024, and the commission linked the trend to the ongoing conflict.¹¹

The most severe anti-Palestinian hate crime case in Illinois involved Joseph Czuba, a 73-year-old Plainfield landlord who in October 2023 fatally stabbed 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and seriously wounded the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen. Prosecutors established that Czuba targeted the family because of their Islamic faith and the war. He was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and hate crime in February 2025 and sentenced to 53 years.¹²

Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, described the Panera incident as part of a “larger hateful phenomenon” and welcomed the charges, saying the “alleged shameful and abusive behavior has to be understood and called out for what it is … it cannot and will not have a home here.”¹³ In October 2024, Illinois launched “Help Stop Hate,” a confidential multilingual service for victims and witnesses to report hate crimes, citing a “severe increase in hate crime throughout the state.”¹¹

1
Chicago Sun-Times. Downers Grove Hate Crime Defendant Pleads Not Guilty
2
Chicago Sun-Times. Woman Faces Hate Crime Charges After Allegedly Assaulting Palestinian Couple at Downers Grove Restaurant
3
ABC 7 Chicago. Darien Woman Charged With Hate Crime in Alleged Anti-Palestinian Assault at Panera in Downers Grove
4
CAIR-Chicago. Woman Faces Hate Crime Charges in Assault on Palestinian Man, Pregnant Wife at Downers Grove Panera
5
CAIR. CAIR-Chicago Welcomes Hate Crime Charges Against Woman Who Attacked Couple Over Palestine Hoodie
6
CBS News Chicago. Surveillance, Body Camera Video in Hate Crime Case Against Woman at Downers Grove Panera
7
DuPage County. DuPage County State’s Attorney Press Release
8
Village of Downers Grove. Joint Press Release on Hate Crime Charges
9
Illinois General Assembly. 720 ILCS 5/12-7.1 – Hate Crime
10
NBC Chicago. Woman Charged With Hate Crime After Incident at Suburban Panera Bread Caught on Camera
11
Chicago Commission on Human Relations. 2025 Hate Crimes Report
12
CBS News Chicago. Plainfield Man Convicted of Killing Palestinian Boy Dies
13
CAIR-Chicago. Darien Woman Faces Hate Crime Charges for Alleged Anti-Palestinian Attack, Authorities Say