ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man faces multiple charges after sheriff’s deputies say he threatened two customers at a McDonald’s restaurant with a stun gun and knife and yelled “get out of my country.”
It happened early Wednesday in St. Augustine on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.
Mohamed Galal and Zeyad Said told St. Johns Sheriff’s deputies that 60-year-old John Jay Smith approached them while holding a knife and asked if they were “American boys.” An arrest report says Smith yelled that they “don’t deserve American food.”
While being arrested, the report says Smith said “they killed my son,” a U.S. Marine who died while in combat in Afghanistan.
Smith faces charges of aggravated assault, trespassing and burglary.
Prosecutors will determine whether the incident was a hate crime. Jail records didn’t list an attorney.
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