A 53-year-old woman has been charged with hate crime for allegedly hurling racial abuse and throwing a bottle at a jogger in New York park last month.
The woman has been identified as Lorena Delaguna and could be sentenced to a jail term of seven years if she is convicted. She appeared in court Tuesday on charges of attempted assault in the second degree as a hate crime and aggravated harassment in the second degree, CNN reported.
The incident took place on August 17 when an African American woman was out for an afternoon jog in Woodside. Delaguna allegedly hurled a glass bottle at her. The bottle broke near the woman and a liquid splashed on her. Delaguna went on to yell at the jogger and told her "to get out of here and go back to Africa and calling her the N-word," a statement said.
The cops released a video last week in the incident near 53rd Place and Broadway. It shows a woman walking along a sidewalk around noon, as the African American woman passes by. Delaguna is seen yelling something at the jogger and then throw a glass bottle.
Delaguna is accused of following the woman for at least a block while yelling and threatening her, Katz's office said. Luckily the woman was not injured in the incident and continued with her jog, the New York Police Department said in a report.
"I don't like to have that type of energy around me, so I was like OK, I just need to get away from her, and to me walking away was the easiest way of doing that," the African American woman was quoted was saying by the NBC New York.
"This incident happened to me while I was jogging in 98 degree weather minding my business," the woman wrote in a social media post. "My freedom, my time, my humanity matters, my body matters. I hope this helps to raise awareness to a real issue. #runningwhileblack or literally doing ANYTHING while black," the woman said.