Racist customer kicked Black store clerk 'in the genitals' while shouting slurs: police

An Illinois man was charged with a hate crime after police said he physically and verbally abused two Black store clerks.

The 58-year-old white man, whose name was not released by the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, got into an argument with one of the clerks Monday afternoon at Casey’s General Store, and he began hurling racist and homophobic slurs at the 24-year-old employee, reported the Herald-Review.

A second employee and the store manager then asked the customer to leave, but he refused, and the first employee doused the older man with a cup of soda -- and the customer put the worker into a headlock.

The second employee managed to break the customer's hold and tried to push him out of the store, deputies said, and the man scratched his arm, punched him in the side and kicked the clerk in the genitals.

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The customer tried to pull the door open after he was shoved outside, while the employees struggled to hold it shut, and the altercation broke the automatic door-closing mechanism.

The customer finally left, but deputies tracked him down to his home in Decatur and questioned.

“He advised he was not receiving proper service at Casey’s General Store which caused him to get upset,” said Deputy Trevor Rigg.

The man admitted to using racial slurs and physically attacking the workers, and he was booked on charges of committing a hate crime, two counts of aggravated battery and a charge of disorderly conduct, as well as trespassing and committing criminal damage.

The man was released on $1,500 bond and banned from entering any Casey's store.