A Muslim woman is facing battery charges in Georgia after she allegedly stole a homeowner’s American flag and started attacking her with it.

Dami Arno said the woman was wearing a full Burka when she emerged from the woods near their home in Lawrenceville and walked up to their mailbox where the flag was flying from a 4-foot pole, a local NBC News affiliate reported.

“I stood up and I yelled at her, ‘Don’t touch my flag,’ and she yanked it out and headed towards us just waving it,” Ms. Arno told the station.

She said the woman charged at her with the flag and they began to fight. That is when Ms. Arno’s 17-year-old daughter jumped in and her 14-year-old son grabbed the family gun, NBC News reported.

The boy stood ready to fire a warning shot, but “that did not even faze her,” Ms. Arno said. “It didn’t stop her; it didn’t do anything.”

At one point, witnesses said the woman took her shoe off and began hitting other people with it.

“I’ve got a swollen knuckle, I’ve got a bruise there, I’ve got a bruise there and she got me on my face,” Ms. Arno said, pointing to her bicep, wrist and chin.

Neighbors also ran to help and held the suspect down until Lawrenceville police arrived.

“We fought for probably 7 minutes until the police arrived here because I wasn’t letting her go I did not know what else she would do,” Ms. Arno said. “She had already chased one of my neighbors into her house that morning.”

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Amina Ali Ahra, was arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery. The motive behind the alleged attack has not been determined, NBC News reported.

Ms. Arno and her daughter said Ms. Ahra never uttered a word and seemed possessed.

“She never said a word, the look in her eyes, my neighbor even asked if she had been brainwashed,” the mother said. “Crazy, that’s all, that’s the only way I can explain it.”

She said Ms. Ahra should face hate-crime charges.

“What in the world is going on here? Why am I not safe on my own property why can I not sitting in my garage and not feel like I’m going to be attacked by someone walking down my street with my American flag?” Ms. Arno said. “How much plainer could a hate crime be when she rips your American flag off and charges you on your own property? It’s nothing less than a hate crime.

“I have friends who have fought and died for the red, white and blue. When she took it down, it was not disrespect, it was not a slap in the face, it was a punch to the gut,” she told a local Fox News affiliate.

She said she’s just thankful her son doesn’t have to live with the guilt of shooting someone.

Ms. Ahra remained in the Gwinnett County Adult Detention Center as of Wednesday evening.

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