ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – St. Louis County police reported responding to a fight in progress at the Heritage Place Dierbergs grocery store on Olive Boulevard last Friday.

Shawn E. Singer, 31, is accused of assaulting a man in the aisle so fiercely that another shopper attempted to intervene but failed to break it up. Police report Singer told them, “I’m tired of foreigners, man. Walking all over the place, making our money cost so much more than it should.”

“This is not something we will put up with,“ St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith said. “The victim in our case was merely doing his grocery shopping.”

According to the probable cause statement, written by a St. Louis County police officer, Singer allegedly called the responding officer a punk and blamed foreigners for damaging our economy and taking American jobs.

Court records allege the defendant told the arresting officer, “Don’t blame this on me, man, there’s people who are from other countries that are taking jobs away from us,” as well as “I’m next (expletive) going to China to take them down because they were part of the COVID vaccine, virus.”

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Singer with fourth-degree assault motivated by discrimination. Singer remains jailed on a $40,000 cash-only bond.

“We will hold these offenders accountable, and we will protect the victims,” Smith said.

According to the county prosecutor, “assault motivated by discrimination” is the legal way of calling it a hate crime charge.

“It’s the state of Missouri’s state statute – hate crime statute,” she said, which enhances the assault charge from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Singer is slated to go before a judge next month for a bond reduction hearing.