Florida woman arrested for pepper-spraying NYC Asian women, charged with hate crime

A woman from Merritt Island in Central Florida was formally charged with hate crime charges on over a viral pepper-spraying incident in New York City where she yelled anti-Asian slurs.

Madeline Barker, 47, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday and charged with assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime and harassment as a hate crime, according to police.

The June 11 attack was partly caught on video, showing Barker in a bright fuschia dress walk up to and pepper spray a group of four Asian women.

Nicole, a 24-year-old graphic designer born and raised in Queens, told the New York Post she and her three female friends had just attended a flower show nearby and were looking for a bag one of them had lost when “the lady nearby turned around and said, ‘You’re harassing me.’”

The group tried to placate her but said Barker erupted into a racist tirade, saying “You’re harassing me! Go back where you came from! Go back to your country!”

“My friend started to record [the enraged woman], but then [the suspect] smacked the phone out of her hand,” Nicole said. 

“Then she turned to an Asian bystander who we didn’t know and said, ‘Take your bitches back to where you all came from.’”

Barker then pepper-sprayed them and fled, according to the victims, bystanders and video.

She is being held at Rikers Island on $20,000 bail because her out-of-state residency made her a possible flight risk.

Barker’s legal aid counsel told the judge the case had been “amplified by media sensation,” according to Fox News.

Activists said decisive action had to be taken to deter future anti-Asian attacks, which have flared up in the city.

“In order for people to start feeling safe again and for tourists to want to come back to our city, a strong and clear message must be sent,” Brian Chin of the Alliance for Community Preservation and Betterment told The Post on Sunday.

“If you randomly and maliciously attack someone because of the color of their skin, the shape of their eyes or because they are speaking a foreign language, the full extent of the law will crack down upon you.”