Hate Crime Charges For Skokie Man Over Attack On Pro-Palestinians

SKOKIE, IL — Prosecutors approved hate crime charges against a Skokie man accused of attacking a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators with pepper spray, police said.

Zevulen Ebert, 33, was arrested by Skokie police Sunday outside an pro-Israel solidarity rally that drew several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Ebert appeared in court Wednesday charged with four felonies — two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of hate crime.

At least three people, including a Chicago police officer, suffered minor injuries when they were hit by pepper spray near the event, according to Skokie police.

Representatives of the demonstrators outside the event described the spray as "military-grade."

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Cook County prosecutors said the hate crime charges are detainable offenses under the Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail from the Illinois criminal court system, but they decided against petitioning for Ebert's pretrial detention at a hearing Wednesday afternoon in Skokie.

Prosecutors are also not pressing charges on behalf of the police officers who were struck by the spray, only a pair of demonstrators.

According to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Ebert was standing in front of a group of Palestinian demonstrators while holding an Israeli flag when someone ran up and tried to grab the flag from him.

During the verbal exchange that followed, Ebert pulled out a large canister and sprayed one of the two people who he is accused of battering, prosecutors said. He then took several steps toward a group of demonstrators accompanied by Chicago police officers.

"During the incident, the offender made accusations about Palestinians killing babies," Assistant State's Attorney James Lynch said at Ebert's initial court appearance. "The offender also gave obscene middle finger gestures to Palestinian supporters immediately after the spraying offenses."

Ebert is due back in court on Nov. 16 to be indicted.

Another man was arrested Sunday after firing a gun into the air but later released without charges after the felony review unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office decided not to prosecute him, according to Lincolnwood police.

Prosecutors said they determined he "acted in self-defense."

Video posted to social media appears to show the gunman pull up in a car, get out and chase one demonstrator, confront members of the crowd and eventually fire a gun into the air before being taken into custody at gunpoint by police.

Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, welcomed the filing of hate crime charges against Ebert.

“These charges are good news, of course, because racist zionists who are supporting war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people, and who are also attacking our people here in the U.S., must be stopped,” Abudayyeh said.

Abudayyeh said in a statement that his group, which organized the demonstration outside the Solidarity With Israel event organized by the Simon Weisenthal Center, would continue pressuring Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to reconsider charges against the gunman.

Simon Weisenthal Center Midwest Regional Director Alison Pure-Slovin said things "escalated out of fear" and said her group had "no direct knowledge about the shooter or his intentions."

Related: Gunfire, Pepper Spray, Hit-And-Run Outside Pro-Israel Rally: Police

Separately, a series of videos recorded in a nearby parking lot show a man being followed police and a group pro-Palestinian protestors before he appears to be tackled to the ground and pummeled by a pair of the demonstrators.

Skokie Police Department representatives issued a statement Tuesday announcing that the department was "aware of a video circulating on social media depicting a violent altercation," and asking anyone with information to contact police.

Peter Christos, the windy territory high school rep for Turning Point USA, identified himself as the person who was beaten in the video. Christos said he and a co-worker with conservative activist Charlie Kirk's group had been trying to "escort a lost, elderly Jewish couple to the Pro-Israel event," when he was punched, kicked and hit with a flagpole.

"There's no reason to be such a hateful person to someone that you don't even know," Christos said on The Charlie Kirk Show. "I know that people are angry at times but that does not give someone the excuse to harass and assault and beat someone just because you think differently."

Christos, a Glenbrook North High School graduate, previously organized a 2020 pro-Donald Trump "Power to the People" rally in Northbrook after he said he was attacked for holding up a "Trump 2020" flag near a controversial sign that declared that the United States was "#1" in deaths associated with the COVID-19 virus.