ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A North Carolina man who acknowledged grabbing and pulling off a Muslim woman’s hijab on a flight from Chicago to Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been sentenced to a year of probation that includes two months of home confinement.

Federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Gill Parker Payne of Gastonia also was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Payne pleaded guilty in May to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a person’s free exercise of religious beliefs in connection with the Dec. 11 incident on a Southwest Airlines flight.

In his plea agreement, Payne said he grabbed and removed Khawla Abdel-Haq’s hijab, a religious headscarf, midflight. He was seated several rows behind her and did not know her.

He stormed down the aisle, shouted “This is America! Take that s*** off,” and then grabbed the back of the hijab and pulled it all the way off, leaving her head exposed. 

As a result, Abdel-Haq’s felt violated and quickly pulled the hijab back up and covered her head again.

Abdel-Haq told Judge Steven Yarbrough that she was afraid to leave her home for three weeks.

Payne has been sentenced to a year of probation that includes two months of home confinement.

“All Americans, regardless of their differences, deserve to be treated with respect,” said Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division. “As the lead agency for enforcing federal civil rights laws, the FBI will continue to hold accountable those individuals whose intolerant acts harm others. I would like to thank the FBI staff in Albuquerque and Charlotte, North Carolina, for their work on this case, as well as the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Albuquerque Aviation Police.”