New York City officials charged Woman charged with hate crime in connection with anti-Asian attack in Manhattan earlier this month.
Madeline Barker, 47, was indicted Saturday on multiple charges, including four counts of aggravated assault of the second degree and three counts of assault as a hate crime, according to court records. He was also charged with one count of attempted assault as a hate crime.
Police said they were looking for Barker after a video showed him making anti-Asian remarks and sprinkling pepper on four people near Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. A complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said that Barker confirmed his identity with officers when shown a still image from the video.
The four women who were sprayed with pepper, who all identified as Asian, told officers that Barker told them, “Why don’t you go back to your country,” according to the complaint.
A judge issued Barker a $20,000 bond, which was not posted until Sunday afternoon, according to court records.
An attorney listed for Barker, who works for the Legal Aid Society, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
One Hate crime statistics analysis Published earlier this year by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that there has been a 339 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes compared to last year in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and others. Cities have exceeded their records. Numbers in 2020.
The increase was part of an overall 11 percent increase in suspected hate crimes reported to police in a dozen of America’s largest cities, with the report finding that black Americans remained the most frequently targeted group in most cities.
Chantal da Silva contribution,