The woman above looking oh-so-sad is 43-year-old Jodie Marie Burchard-Risch. According to police, Burchard-Risch assaulted a woman at an Applebee’s in Coon Rapids, Minnesota because that customer spoke a language other than English.
On October 30th, Burchard-Risch was dining with her husband and became upset when she heard a woman, Asma Mohamed Jama, in the neighboring booth speak a language that was not English. She began to yell at Jama, who was dining with her cousins and four children, at which point cops say management of the restaurant asked her to leave.
She refused, continued to yell at Jama, and then threw her drink at her. The criminal complaint says that Burchard-Risch then “smashed” her beer mug across Jama’s face in a “round house punch” motion and fled the scene.
An Applebee’s employee followed Burchard-Risch out to keep on eye on her before officers came and arrested her.
Jama (seen below) had a deep cut across her nose, a cut on her right eyebrow and a large, deep cut on her lower lip. She received 17 stitches.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for hate crime charges to be filed against Burchard-Risch, who was arrested and charged with third-degree assault.
Burchard-Risch was taken into custody and charged with third-degree assault.
