Police have laid 10 charges after a man was caught on camera yelling profane and racist language at a family shopping in a Halifax Costco.
In a news release Friday, Halifax police said officers arrested a man Thursday in Port Dufferin, N.S., roughly 125 kilometres east of Halifax.
The release said officers deployed a stun gun when the suspect brandished a weapon. He was treated by paramedics at the scene and medically cleared.
Randall Byron Publicover, 37, is charged with 10 offences, including public incitement of hatred, assault and four counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death.
He appeared in Halifax provincial court on Friday and a court date was scheduled for September 3. He was released on several conditions, including a ban on possessing firearms. He is also barred from coming within 50 metres of the Halifax Costco or any mosque or Islamic community centre.
A video of a man at the Bayers Lake Costco on July 4 was widely circulated on social media.
In it, the man appears to follow two women in hijabs telling them to “get the f–k out of the country.”
Police seek to ID suspect in Halifax Costco incident
The man is then approached by a third woman who tells him to leave the store and shut his mouth. The man then asks the third woman if she “owns Nova Scotia” because if not, she could go with them.
After that, the man becomes aware of the person recording the video and appears to strike them. The video goes dark.
Someone then tells the man they’re going to make a complaint. The man goes on to say “we’re killing every f–king one of you.” Then the man uses several racial slurs and repeats “we’re killin’ every f–king one of you.”
He then says “you can f–king leave or you can f–king put up with it ’cause you’re all f–king dying.”
Ali Duale, operations manager of the Ummah Masjid and Community Centre and a former Liberal MLA for the area, called the video “heartbreaking.”
“To see a family enjoying their daily life as any other Haligonian going to the grocery store and be called out because of wearing a piece of cloth on her hair … that’s horrible and that’s unacceptable,” he told CBC News.
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