NEW YORK: A businessman has been accused of assaulting a female Muslim worker at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
According to the US media reports, the man alleged kicked, shouted obscenities and said that President Donald Trump “will get rid of all of you,” authorities said.
Robin Rhodes, of Worcester, Massachusetts, arrived from Aruba and was awaiting a connecting flight to Massachusetts on Wednesday night when he allegedly approached Rabeeya Khan, who wears a hijab, at the Sky Club in Terminal 2.
She told police he approached her and asked if she was praying, prosecutor Richard A. Brown said. Rhodes then punched the door, which hit the back of Khan’s chair, he said.
The 60-year-old Khan asked Rhodes what she had done to him and Rhodes said she’d done nothing, authorities said. He then cursed at her and kicked her in the leg, Khan told police.
Khan ran out of the office to the front desk at the club, authorities said. Rhodes, 57, followed her, got down on his knees and began to bow down to imitate Muslim prayers and shouted obscenities, investigators said.
Rhodes reportedly said: “Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you. You can ask Germany, Belgium and France about these kinds of people. You see what happens,” prosecutors said.
At the time of his arrest, Rhodes told officers, “I guess I am going to jail for disorderly conduct,” Brown said.
Robin Rhodes is the president of Nitro freeze Cryogenic Solutions, a metals company based in Worcester.
