Police Charged This Woman After She Allegedly Attacked A Muslim Mom In A Grocery Store

The suspect pulled off the woman's hijab, police say.

Police in London, Ontario, charged the woman in this photo with assault after she allegedly attacked a Muslim woman who was grocery shopping with her 4-month-old son.

London Police Service

Police say the attack appeared to be unprovoked.

The 25-year-old mother, who spoke to the London Free Press, said the woman was glaring at her and muttering under her breath. When she asked what the problem was, the other woman launched into a verbal assault and spat on her.

The Free Press, which did not name the victim, reported that the she "slapped the attacker with the back of her hand as a natural reflex." In response, the attacker allegedly grabbed the mother's head, dragged her away from her son, pinned her against a wall, and punched her in the face up to three times. Her hijab fell off her head during the attack, she said.

The mother said other people in the store watched, but nobody intervened to stop the assault. She said she took these photos of her attacker as she walked toward the checkout.

London Police Service

The suspect, who police said "spoke with a heavy accent" of indeterminate origin, left the area after the alleged attack. However, she was arrested and charged with assault just a day later.

According to the Free Press, the attack left the young mother with a black eye and a chipped tooth.

“I do worry about the safety of all Muslim women who wear hijab,” she told the newspaper.

“Before I thought it was just a statistic that I would see happen to people, but now I know it’s real and it happened to me.”