Police officers are charging a woman after she allegedly had a confrontation with a stranger in Palo Alto on Friday evening in a supposed hate crime.
Hate Crime
In a statement, police said that after 42-year-old Sarah Ann Neal from Santa Clara tried to ask for money from a man who looked like he was in his 50s, she demanded the stranger’s identification and immigration status.
When the Middle Eastern man declined Neal’s requests, she hit him with a laptop she pulled from her bag, police said. She then grabbed a huge wooden sign on the pavement and tried to smash the man with it, but police claimed she missed.
Police said that she accused the man of “probably hating women” as she told him that he was “the reason the country was going down.”
Around 7:55 p.m, bystanders called the police to report the incident. Neal was found and arrested near the scene. According to the police, she was charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and a hate crime.
The victim claims Neal overheard him talking on his phone with a heavy accent and believes she took offense; he told police, The Sacramento Bee reported.
