Alberto Friedmann was arrested and charged after he spat on a Black woman in the parking lot of a Chicago-area grocery store.
The melee began when the victim and her 7-year-old daughter were parked in front of the store waiting for her mother to finish shopping. Friedmann pulled up behind the woman and began honking his horn although the woman was not blocking traffic.
The woman told Friedmann to drive around her but instead, he exited his car and began yelling racial slurs, reported NBC Chicago.
The victim tried to exit her car but the assailant allegedly pushed the door closed on her and then spit in her face. He also said that he did it because he “didn’t like Black people.”
Friedmann admitted to spitting on the woman to prosecutors. He also allegedly purposely hit her car with his and prosecutors say he came within inches of hitting the victim.
He was arrested at the scene.
Another troubling angle to this incident is that Friedmann is a college professor. He teaches at the National University of Health Sciences in Lombard.
Due to an outcry by his students that was so ardent that they contacted Illinois State Representative LaShawn Ford.
“They sent letters to higher-ups. They are destroyed because they are taught by this person, and their question is what type of person this is,” Ford said.
Further, the school has placed him on suspension.
“We take allegations of misconduct seriously, and therefore have suspended Alberto Friedmann pending the results of a university investigation,” the school said.
Friedmann was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault with a motor vehicle and committing a hate crime. He was granted a $2,500 bond on those charges and released.
In a hearing on the matter, his attorney, John McNamara, claimed that Friedmann is the child of immigrants and a minority himself and denied outright that he used racial slurs.
In addition to several witnesses, prosecutors are using surveillance from the Jewel-Osco grocery store to argue their case against the assailant.
