July 22 (UPI) — A Kentucky man was arrested and charged Monday with a federal hate crime for pulling a loaded gun on a Palestinian American at a restaurant in March.
The Justice Department said in a statement that an indictment was unsealed Monday accusing Melvin Litteral III of threatening a Palestinian American man and practicing Muslim while they were “enjoying the goods, services and facilities of a local restaurant” on March 28.
Little about the crime was revealed by the Justice Department, but local reports published following the incident state it occurred at the Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen on Walden Drive in Lexington.
The victim in the court document is identified as O.S. Following the incident, Omar Shalash identified himself as the victim in a lengthy post on X, screen shots of which were published online by LEX 18.
In the post, Shalash states he and his wife were at the restaurant to break their fast when harassed by a man who was making racist and anti-Muslim remarks.
Shalash said he attempted to confront the man about his comment who then pushed him and produced a firearm.
“He pulled a gun out of his pocket and stuck it to my head and asked me, ‘Do you want to die, Arabia?’” Shalash said.
Officers with the Lexington Police Department took Litteral into custody that night at his home, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported in the days following his arrest.
According to police cited in the report, Litteral tried to slam his front door on the arresting officers and then used his body to prevent their entrance. He then resisted arrest by not willingly giving up his hands to be handcuffed.
The federal prosecutors have charged Litteral with a hate crime offense and a second firearms charge. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for the hate crime offense and a mandatory minimum penalty of seven years in prison to run consecutively for the firearm offense.
The alleged crime occurred amid Israel’s war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and a spike in hate incidents directed at Palestinians and Muslims in the United States.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, it received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of last year, starting with October, which is when the Israel-Hamas war began.
“We welcome the hate crime charge in this case and thank federal law enforcement authorities for their swift and professional actions to apprehend a suspect,” CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said Monday in a statement.
“No American should be targeted by hatred or violence because of their religion, ethnicity or national origin. Our country has been consumed by a wildfire of anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry spread by those who seek to justify the genocide in Gaza by dehumanizing Palestinians and Muslims. It must stop.”
One of the nation’s top knee doctors shared a positive diagnosis with former Kentucky forward Jayden Quaintance going into the 2026 NBA Draft, revealing that his knee is not expected to be a long-term concern, KSR has learned.
That may include a second procedure to officially put the injury suffered in February 2025 behind him, however.
Dr. Riley Williams III — head team physician and orthopedic surgeon for the Brooklyn Nets and famous for performing surgery on Paul George’s gruesome open tibia-fibula fracture with USA Basketball in 2014 — gave a second opinion on Quaintance’s injured right knee that limited him to four games in Lexington and recommended a follow-up procedure that could keep him off the floor for six months. The 6-foot-11 prospect’s ACL remains fully intact and his knee can be maintained at its current state, but a clean-up is preferred for a permanent resolution.
Medical concerns led to his slide in final mock drafts — he was projected to go No. 27 overall to the Boston Celtics, according to ESPN — before ultimately landing with the San Antonio Spurs at No. 20. This procedure could lead to a delayed start to his rookie season, but the long-term reward of a healthy 15-year career in the NBA is the prize on the table. It kept teams in the lottery and late teens intrigued, despite rumors of a potential fall to the second round. Sources close to Quaintance felt San Antonio at No. 20 was a backstop for the talented forward going into draft night, an educated hunch that proved to be accurate.
Quaintance worked out for the Dallas Mavericks (No. 9, No. 30), Milwaukee Bucks (No. 10), Oklahoma City Thunder (No. 12, No. 17), Chicago Bulls (No. 15), Toronto Raptors (No. 19), San Antonio Spurs (No. 20) and Boston Celtics (No. 27) ahead of the draft, but the Thunder and Spurs were the most aggressive throughout the predraft process, sources tell KSR. Once OKC snagged Michigan’s Aday Mara at No. 12 overall, it opened the door for a move to San Antonio for the former Wildcat.
There was disappointment in Quaintance’s absence on draft night after failing to receive a green room invite, but receiving confirmation of no long-term knee concern was the biggest priority — and that came after meeting with arguably the nation’s top knee doctor before the 2026 NBA Draft began in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
Quaintance was not the top-five pick he was expected to be going into his lone season at Kentucky, but he found himself in a perfect winning situation in San Antonio next to the future face of the NBA in Victor Wembanyama, even if that includes a short-term setback.
The Kentucky Wildcats are getting ready to start a new era of their football program. In his 13 seasons as head coach, we have all become accustomed to seeing Mark Stoops teams at Kentucky play a certain way. This has been both on defense and on offense, the Wildcats have had a similar blueprint of winning games and finding success. Now, both sides of the ball will look a lot different in terms of scheme, so we will start on the defensive side and what differences you will see in 2026 under new coach Will Stein.
Mark Stoops and defensive coordinator Brad White had a lot of success in their 3-4 defense with a conservative play style, but it had plenty of weaknesses as well. With a nose tackle head up on the center and two defensive lineman playing on the inside shoulder of each offensive tackle, the defense would create pressure but couldn’t consistently finish to make them sacks. This defense required a guy like Joshua Hines-Allen to win one-on-one blocks on the edge in a dominant fashion to thrive as a defense. Since 2020, Kentucky finished top five in total sacks in the SEC just once, in 2023; every other team finished ninth or less in the conference in team sacks.
This conservative 3-4 defense allowed Kentucky to stay in similar personnel throughout the game. The conservative nature had a bend-don’t-break philosophy of keeping everything in front and making tackles. Kentucky rarely switched things up and rolled the dice with blitzes or had pre and post snap coverage rotations on the back end. It was cover 3 and cover 4 heavy, while not disguising coverages and typically sending four pass rushers at the quarterback.
The new scheme under defensive coordinator Jay Bateman will be the entire opposite of the old regime. This scheme will be primarily out of an even front, and we have highlighted current players on the team that will benefit from a change in technique. Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace will switch to a traditional edge rusher lining up outside of the offensive tackle, whereas Tavion Gadson will move to a true three technique on the outside shoulder of the offensive guard and both of these players played in the same technique in the previous scheme. Both Humphrey-Grace and Gadson should have more production moving to techniques they more accurately fit.
Kentucky’s defense will utilize five defensive backs for a majority of snaps, which is beneficial with most offenses living in 11 personnel with three wide receivers on the field. This scheme’s success in year one will heavily rely upon the experienced safety duo of Ty Bryant and Jordan Castell. Coach Bateman will have a lot more safety rotations in this scheme and switch up coverages a lot, disguising a particular coverage pre-snap before switching it post-snap. This defense will have a ton of eye candy to try and keep offenses off balance.
This aggressive scheme will not only roll the dice more on passing downs, playing more man coverage. However, it will also be more aggressive in terms of blitzing the quarterback or sending simulated pressures. Simulated pressures are shown as four defensive lineman rushing, but one will drop into coverage with a back seven player blitzing, still sending four at the quarterback while finding creative ways to do so. This amount of disguise and blitzing can create more havoc in the passing game, but it can also allow players to get out of position in the run game.
This schematic change will greatly benefit Kentucky against pass heavy teams, but it remains to be seen how that will be a benefit or a detriment to the run defense. In theory, this scheme should be able to create more havoc plays like sacks and tackles for loss, which can also provide more turnovers. Will Stein mentioned in a press conference, as an offensive minded coach, he wants to steal possessions on defense to get the ball back for his offense. This aggressive style is built towards a common theme of the new regime, which is they will try to win football games on offense rather than on defense.
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