Swahili-speaking woman hit with beer mug forgives attacker

ANOKA, Minn. – Choosing love over hate was the message a Minnesota woman delivered in court Tuesday during her attacker's sentencing hearing.

The woman was beaten at a restaurant for not speaking English.

Recalling the day she was attacked nearly brought Aasma Jama to tears, but her voice didn't waver as she spoke directly to Jodi Marie Burchard-Risch.

"I don't have any ill feelings toward you. I just want you -- at the end of all this -- to understand we are all the same. It doesn't matter what's on my head. It doesn't matter the color of my skin, we are all the same human beings. We are fighting for the same rights," Jama said.

Burchard-Risch admits she hit Jama in the face with a beer mug at a Coon Rapids Applebees in October 2015. She was angry because Jama was speaking Swahili with her family. Jama needed 17 stitches to close the wound.

Read more at KARE.