After speaking with a man seen being pushed in a cellphone video taken at a Superstore in Calgary, police told Global News on Friday that charges have been laid.
The video, which surfaced on social media in early December, shows a man shouting at a cashier after reportedly being double-scanned for an item.
The video later shows that same man yelling racist comments at a Superstore clerk who allegedly intervened.
“Bomb-making motherf*****,” the man can be heard saying.
Another customer then tried to step in, at which point the confrontation turned physical when the man in question pushed and threatened the intervening customer.
WATCH from Dec. 4: A racially-charged rant that turned physical was caught on camera at a Calgary grocery store, and it’s getting plenty of attention. Now those who spoke out against the barrage of hate are being targeted, and police are getting involved. Lisa MacGregor reports.
Police issued a plea for the victim and the man in the video to come forward so they could get both sides of the story.
Global News has learned Peter Andrew Simpson, 48, was charged with one count each of assault, uttering threats and causing a disturbance in relation to the incident.
He was scheduled to appear in court on May 11 in Calgary.
Due to the racial nature of the incident, the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council had called on police to also pursue hate crime charges against the man.
Zeb Qureshi, a member of the group, said they will “continue to have dialogue with the Calgary police to see why that wasn’t carried through.”
“But in this case it’s, I think, a positive to see that some other charges were considered, which is not what we’ve seen in the past,” Qureshi added.
“I think in this case the authorities did their due diligence, and we’ll see where this goes in our continued conversations with the Calgary police.”
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