BY: LBS STAFF
Published 20 hours ago
The mother of the young girls, who is Black, alleged that her 81-year-old neighbor “yelled” the n-word at them while using bear mace, expressing to a local news outlet her wish that the woman had faced “hate crime” charges.
A Florida woman was arrested after she allegedly sprayed her neighbor and her two kids with bear mace and called them racial slurs.
According to a Marion County Sheriff’s Office probable cause affidavit, obtained by Law&Crime, on May 30, Ada Anderson, 81, approached her neighbor, April Morant, and her two daughters — who are 6 and 3 — while the young girls were “playing with soap bubble toys” on their driveway.
Anderson allegedly “walked to the metal fence separating their properties, and sprayed bear mace at them.” Morant — who is Black — told police, per the document, that while Anderson — who is white — sprayed the mace, she “yelled” the n-word at them. The mother also claimed that Anderson has “called her and her children racial slurs multiple times in the past.”
According to the affidavit, Morant said the “bear mace did touch her and her children, and her lungs were [physically affected by the spray],” and also provided a video she allegedly recorded on her cell phone that showed Anderson “holding what appears to be the bear mace inside her porch after the incident.” The deputy said in the document that he interviewed the 6-year-old daughter, who said her “nose hurt because of the spray.”
While investigating the scene, deputies said they “observed an orange/brown wet liquid substance on the fence and grass,” noting in the affidavit that the “substance caused irritation to deputies’ nose and throat when smelled,” and “identified the liquid to be pepper spray.”
The sheriff’s office said that Morant shared another video recording, which was allegedly filmed “earlier in the day,” with them as well.
“The video is a phone recording of Mrs. Morant walking up her driveway towards her house pointing the camera at the defendant’s house,” the affidavit stated. “The defendant is initially unintelligible, but can be heard loudly saying ‘… neighborhood … f–king [n-word].'”
As for Anderson, she allegedly told the sheriff’s office that Morant and her daughters were “running up and down the fence and yelling at her, so she opened her porch screen door and sprayed the pepper spray at them,” but claimed the substance “did not touch them.”
Anderson was arrested, and charged with three counts of battery.
While speaking with local outlet WESH, Morant opened up about the incident.
“Bubbles. Literally. The bubbles put her [Anderson] in a whole other arena, whatever was going on with her mind,” she said, before sharing her recollection of events, “What went through my head is I thought she had a gun, so I literally kind of jumped, like it startled me … I didn’t know what was in her hand … and then she sprayed it.”
Morant said she’s run into issues with Anderson since she moved into her Ocala home last fall, and has hurled racial slurs at her and her family “since day one.”
“I have recordings of her,” she said, noting that she believes Anderson is “escalating.”
Morant also reacted to Anderson’s charges following the incident, sharing that he hoped her neighbor would have also been charged with a hate crime.
“Just battery? But nothing on the kids, or maybe a hate crime because you were saying all this stuff while you were spraying this stuff,” she said.
Morant said she wants to not only get a restraining order against Anderson, but is hoping to move.
“For you to do the bear spray stuff, like I feel like I don’t know what you have in that house,” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be by her.”
Although Anderson was arrested on May 30, she was later released on a $6,000 bail on June 1, per jail records and Law&Crime. Her court date is scheduled for July 1.
via: TooFab
