A food delivery driver allegedly made antisemitic threats and gestures directed at Yeshiva students at a Kemp Mill kosher pizzeria on Thursday.

At about 12:45 p.m., a DoorDash driver entered Ben Yehuda Pizza to pick up a delivery order.

Jasmine Chacon, the cashier working the register at the time, said the driver exhibited “funny” behavior as soon as he walked in: laughing loudly to himself and mumbling under his breath.

During the 10-minute encounter, the driver began “shadow boxing while making antisem[i]tic threats and comments,” according to a Sept. 3 Facebook post by the eatery. (Shadow boxing refers to a combat sport exercise in which a person throws punches at the air while moving as if fighting an opponent.)

“‘You guys (Jews) are wicked. You don’t belong on the planet. You’re evil. You’re disgusting,’” Chacon recalled the driver said. “He was punching the air and saying something” to a group of yeshiva students in the restaurant.

“He made a comment about beating up the yeshiva kids,” Ashley Cathro, the manager, told Washington Jewish Week. “It was during the Yeshiva boys’ school lunch rush, so the restaurant was filled with middle schoolers and high schoolers.”

The students, who didn’t engage with the driver, looked “frightened,” Chacon said.

“I couldn’t quite hear what he was saying to them, but after he gets to the front of the counter, … he says, ‘Oh, they display pizza here. I’m gonna come back tomorrow, cut all their heads off and display them,’” Chacon said.

Then, the DoorDash driver allegedly wielded an imaginary sword, according to Chacon.

“He never actually got close to any of them, but he was loud enough for people to hear him in the kitchen and everywhere [in the restaurant], so he was pretty loud,” Cathro said.

“It seems like he was ranting to himself, but loud enough to be heard,” the business’ Facebook post read. “We didn’t want to agitate him so we let him leave with the order and did what we could to exedite [sic] his departure.”

Cathro immediately filed a police report with the Montgomery County Police Department and also reported the incident directly to DoorDash, citing the driver’s alleged behavior. The food delivery service is allegedly removing the driver from its platform, according to the Facebook post. MCPD confirmed to Washington Jewish Week that an incident report matching the date, time, location and description was filed on Sept. 3 at 1:40 p.m.

At the time of publication, DoorDash did not respond to a Sept. 4 request for comment.

The county police made extra rounds to the shopping center on Sept. 3 and plan to increase police presence over the following few days, according to Cathro.

Ben Yehuda Pizza is located in Kemp Mill Shopping Center, surrounded by an Orthodox synagogue, kosher grocery store, kosher bakery and kosher Chinese restaurant. Located within walking distance from a yeshiva, the area is a hub for the local Orthodox Jewish community.

Cathro distributed screenshots of the delivery driver taken from the store’s security camera footage with the Kemp Mill community and the staff at Ben Yehuda Pizza, who have been advised not to allow him reentry.

Store management noted that the staff has an emergency button they can use to contact the police if the driver attempts to enter the pizzeria again.

“We’re just keeping an eye out for him,” she said. “[I hope] this gets taken care of, and we don’t have to deal with that, and the community doesn’t have to be on edge.”

Ben Yehuda Pizza thanked MCPD for its “prompt attention to [their] call and generally keeping the community safe,” in the Facebook post. The post also commended Cathro and the staff present during the incident, specifically Chacon.

“Jasmine handled it really well,” said Josh Katz, the owner of Ben Yehuda Pizza. “She was doing her best to try to navigate the situation without escalating everything, and it seems like nothing did escalate. … Nobody was physically hurt.”

The incident has garnered attention both on Facebook and in Kemp Mill.

“Since we put it out there, the whole community has come together,” Chacon said. “We’ve gotten multiple calls about it, asking if we need anything, if we’re OK, if there’s anything [they can] do.”

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com