Hatboro, Pennsylvania woman facing charges after racist rant at pizzeria

HATBORO, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- A woman is now facing charges after a racist rant last week at Amy's Pizzeria in Hatboro, Montgomery County.

"You want to have Spanish on your TV?" the woman asked an employee working at the counter.

"What's wrong with that?" the employee said back to the woman.

"What's wrong with that is you're not an American, dude," she responds.

That is just a small portion of what was said in a video that has now gone viral. Hatboro police said they used the video as part of their investigation.

Officers were called to Amy's Pizzeria on the 300 block of South York Road last week.

The woman in the video, who police have identified as Rita Bellew, 55, has since been charged with ethnic intimidation and harassment.

"When we viewed the video, it was really over the top. It was a racially-fueled, profane rant directed at their heritage and it's not going to be tolerated," said Hatboro Chief of Police James Gardner.

The owner of Amy's Pizzeria, Omar Quinonez, is now speaking out after a week of support.

"We got calls from everywhere: South America, Europe... it was unbelievable," said Quinonez.

The rant went on for several minutes but, throughout it all, Quinonez remained calm.

"I was angry but I just didn't want to be like them. I wasn't expecting that. All my customers are really nice people. I've never seen that before - 10 years and that was the first time," Quinonez said.

Before the incident customers say Amy's is a staple in the community, now people are traveling from all over to show their support.

"There's so much hate in the world going around right now so you got to support them by changing the world, showing hate won't win," said Erika Happ of Hatboro.

Police said they don't know why Bellew acted the way she did but it was out of line.