A group of church kids from Spokane, Washington, on a field trip to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, were accosted by a man identified as Richard Sovenski as they stopped for ice cream.
After hearing a guest preacher while traveling in Idaho, the youth group's leader, Jose Ceniceros, took the kids for ice cream at a nearby McDonalds.
Sovenski started yelling racial slurs and extreme profanity at the children as they prepared to leave, says Ceniceros.
Exiting the restaurant, Sovenski allegedly punched Ceniceros and shoved him to the ground. Ceniceros began recording the incident with his phone at that point and shared the video with The Inlander who reported the incident.
“F*ck you, you f*cking half-breeds! Get the f*ck out of Idaho!” Sovenski is shown saying on video.
“You got a f*cking problem, I’m your f*cking guy!” he adds. “I will f*ck you up in a f*cking heartbeat, you little f*ggot!”
At one point, one of the youth group can be heard saying, “That’s why I don’t come to Idaho,” to which Sovenski screams back, “Yeah! That’s why you don’t come to Idaho! We’re real f*cking men here, you bitch!”
Here's the video – Warning: VERY strong language.
The man accompanying Sovenski, who grabs his genitals at the end of the video, is apparently Sovenski's son.
Police arrested Sovenski on one count of misdemeanor battery and one felony count of malicious harassment under Idaho’s hate crime statute which reads: ‘It shall be unlawful for any person, maliciously and with the specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person’s race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin.’
The local NBC affiliate reports that in interviews with investigators, Sovenski's wife says she was worried the children could have bumped into her as she'd recently undergone shoulder surgery.
For Sovenski's part, he told investigators that he didn't so much 'punch' Ceniceros as 'pushed' him and that the church youth leader must have "tripped over his own feet."
Sovenski said he used the strong language to "get the upper hand" in the argument, and believed the comments would "get under their skin."
