A Salem man is charged with assault and intimidation after he allegedly attacked an employee at a Middle Eastern restaurant with a pipe Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, Salem police spokesman Lt. David Okada said. The attack was first reported by the Statesman Journal.

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Jason Lee Kendall, 52, went into Middle Eastern restaurant Al Aqsa at about 3 p.m. Tuesday and hit an employee in the head with a pipe after yelling, "Get out of America," according to a Marion County probable cause affidavit.

Kendall told an arresting officer he went into the restaurant because he saw a woman inside that he thought was being held as a slave, the affidavit said. The shirt the woman was wearing was a signal, Kendall told the officer, according to the affidavit.

Kendall told the officer that he saw a "Saddam Hussein looking guy" and went into the restaurant to tell the woman she could leave, the affidavit said.

An employee told the officer that Kendall came into the restaurant yelling and screaming, "Go back to your country, terrorist," the affidavit said. The employee asked Kendall to leave. He did, but came back about five minutes later and threw a plastic object at the employee, the affidavit said.

Kendall said came back because he saw an "evil totem" with Arabic writing on it outside the building, which he threw at the employee, the officer wrote in the affidavit.

Kendall told the officer that employee was threatening him with an ice pick under a napkin, the affidavit said. Kendall said he hit the employee on the head with a metal pipe in self-defense.

The arresting officer could feel a small bump on the employee's head, the affidavit said.

Incidents like this are unusual in Salem, police spokesman Okada said.

Kendall was arrested Tuesday afternoon, Okada said. He is being held in the Marion County Jail with bail set at $65,000, jail records show.

-- Samantha Matsumoto

503-294-4001; @SMatsumoto55