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The younger brother of the man accused of spraying a substance on Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said the alleged attacker has harbored a hatred for the Somali community for years.
“I’m not surprised this happened,” Anthony Kazmierczak’s estranged brother, who did not wish to be identified, told the Independent over the phone from his home in North Carolina.
“Not at all. Unfortunately, he and my mother are both right-wing extremists,” he added.
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The brother said he’s been estranged from Kazmierczak for the past four years.
“I believe in helping people,” he said. “He believes in blaming people.”
Kazmierczak, 55, allegedly ran toward Omar as she was speaking Tuesday night at a town hall at Urban League Twin Cities where she criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and called for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Video of the incident shows a man spraying an unidentified substance at Omar from a syringe. He was immediately tackled by security personnel and subsequently arrested.
Omar wiped herself clean and continued her remarks.
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“We’re gonna keep talking,” she said. “Just give me 10 minutes. Please don’t let them have the show.”
The brother said Kazmierczak had mentioned Omar before and that he has a deep dislike for Somalis, which began well before Omar was elected to Congress in 2019.
“He has had a hatred of the Somali community for probably 20 years,” Kazmierczak’s brother continued. “There’s a reason I don’t talk to him… He’s got a lot of anger, I have no idea where it comes from. He’s always been that way. In and out of treatment since he was a kid.”
One of Kazmierczak’s neighbors told The New York Post he had hinted in a cryptic text days earlier that he might end up leaving the event in handcuffs.
“He said, ‘I’m going to this Omar thing.’ I’m like, Omar what? He said, ‘This town hall thing.’ And he said, ‘I might get arrested,’” Brian Kelley told The Post.
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“I didn’t take him seriously. I’m surprised, but not overly surprised,” the neighbor added. “I figured when he said he was going to go to the town hall, he’d stand up and say something stupid. I can’t imagine him assaulting or spraying somebody.”