Idaho man filmed in racist and homophobic rant aimed at church group outside McDonald's

An Idaho man has been arrested after he was caught on camera hurling racist and homophobic abuse at a teenage church group eating ice cream outside a McDonald's restaurant.

Richard Sovenski, 52, of Hayden, has been identified by the police as the angry man in the video, and has since been charged with a hate crime, and booked into Kootenai County Jail, reports the New York Post.

A group of high-schoolers from Spokane, Washington, had travelled to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, last Thursday to hear a guest preacher with their church group. Afterwards, the group's leader Jose Ceniceros took them to McDonald's for ice cream.

As they were about to leave, Sovenski approached them and started hurling racist and homophobic slurs at the group.

In the video, which has been posted to Vimeo, and has now had nearly 50,000 views, Sovenski is seen yelling:

I will f*** you up in a f****** heartbeat you f***** little f****t. Oh you f*** you, you f****** half breed.

Get the f*** out of Idaho! F*** you you f***** half breeds! Get the f*** out of here! 

One of the group responds, 'That's why I don't come to Idaho', which elicits another rant from Sovenski:

Yeah! That’s why you don’t come to Idaho! We’re real f***** men here, you b****!

As the man returns inside the restaurant, he then appears to hurl the N-word at the group.

A woman, who was standing with Sovenski, later told the police that the teenagers were "being rude, dancing and running around causing a disturbance".​

Ceniceros denies the accusation that the group provoked the attack. He also alleges that the two men got into a physical fight, and that Sovenski punched him, reports The Inlander.

By the time the police arrived at the scene, Sovenski had left. Police caught up with him five days after the altercation and charged him with one count of misdemeanour battery and one count of felony malicious harassment, which is Idaho’s hate crime statute.

Speaking after the event, Ceniceros expressed the teenagers' shock at the incident:

Five minutes earlier we were in church. The kids couldn’t really believe it.

Sovenski is scheduled to appear in court in September for the battery charge, and preliminary hearings for the malicious harassment charge have been scheduled for the end of July, reports the New York Post.

The incident is the latest in a string of racist rants that have been caught on video in recent months. Yesterday it was reported that a college student lost his scholarship after he was filmed in a racist and homophobic rant in California, and earlier this month passengers on a bus in Ohio feared for their safety after a woman launched into a racist rant and using the N-word.

HT The New York Post

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