Police: Bloomington man arrested in attack on Muslim woman

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - A 19-year-old Bloomington man has been arrested in what witnesses described as a racially motivated attack on a Muslim woman.

A Bloomington police report says officers responded to reports of an assault at Sofra Cafe around 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The report says a 47-year-old woman was sitting at a table with her 9-year-old daughter when a man shouted epithets and racially charged threats at the woman, including "white power" and "kill them all."

According to the report, the man then grabbed the woman by the neck and forced her head toward the table, restricting her breathing while trying to take off her headscarf. The report says her husband and passerby were able to pull the man off of her, and restrained him on the sidewalk until police arrived.

The man spit in the faces of the husband and passerby, and he threatened their lives and those of arriving officers, according to the report. The report says the man tried to kick out the windows of a patrol car, and bit an officer on the calf after arriving at the Monroe County Jail.

The woman complained of pain, but declined medical treatment, the (Bloomington) Herald-Times (http://bit.ly/1kjRvOM ) reports.

The suspect was arrested on preliminary charges of intimidation, public intoxication, battery, minor possession or consumption of alcohol, and strangulation.

Indiana University spokesman Mark Land said the suspect is listed as a student at the Bloomington campus in an online directory.

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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com