A Kentucky man was arrested Monday and charged with federal hate crime and firearms offenses for threatening a Palestinian American man with a loaded gun, federal officials stated.
According to the indictment that was unsealed this morning, on or about March 28, Melvin P. Litteral III used force or the threat of force to intimidate and interfere with the victim – a Palestinian American man and practicing Muslim identified in the indictment by the initials O.S. – because of O.S.’s race, color, religion and/or national origin, and because O.S. was enjoying the goods, services and facilities of a local restaurant.
The indictment also includes a weapons charge, alleging that the defendant brandished a firearm during the offense.
If convicted of the hate crime offense, Litteral faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
If convicted of the firearms charge, Litteral faces up to seven years in prison, to run consecutively to any sentence imposed for the hate crime offense.
Litteral is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The FBI Louisville Field Office is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Dembo for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Trial Attorney Katherine G. DeVar of the Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.