Police are looking for a woman they say grabbed a shaker of black pepper on her way into a popular Brooklyn pizza shop and shook pepper at a 36-year-old patron who was on her way out in what is being investigated as a possible hate crime. NBC New York’s Ida Siegal reports.
A Brooklyn mother has been to a neighborhood pizza spot multiple times with her young children, but when they went back for a slice last week, she says a white woman yelled racial slurs at them and threw red pepper flakes at her 5-month-old.
"We were assaulted with racial slurs and we were physically assaulted," the 36-year-old mother, who does not wish to be identified, recalled the incident at Not Ray's Pizza that the NYPD is now investigating as a hate crime.
She says she was just leaving the pizza shop on Fulton Street around 5:30 p.m. Friday when the stranger called her and her toddler, as well as her 4-year-old son, an anti-Black racial slur and told them to go back to their country. The NYPD said the verbal attack escalated and the woman grabbed a hot pepper shaker and threw it at the mother.
"My daughter was in my arms. It was aimed to us," the mother told NBC New York on Wednesday. None of the flakes got in the baby's eyes or nose, but the racist attack left the mother having to explain to her kids what happened.
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"I spoke to my children and I let them know that we're humankind. We're going to stand together. We're going to continue to eat together and New York stand up," the mother said.
A witness used their cellphone camera to record the aftermath. The video shows the woman in a middle of a profanity-laced rant and police say she eventually left the scene.
No arrests have been made and police are still searching for the woman who may be homeless, according to store employees who said she asked for money when she entered the pizzeria.
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Anyone with information about her is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
