A woman has been arrested in connection to a brutal attack that left a New York City lawyer’s face battered and bruised. Police say they’re now investigating the case as a possible hate crime.
Cops charged 37-year-old Amy Bell of Brooklyn on Wednesday with assault, aggravated harassment and harassment after they say she bashed a local civil rights lawyer in the face with a metal makeup box three weeks ago, NBC 4 New York reported. Bell allegedly mentioned the victim’s race during the incident.
“It’s the worst pain you ever felt in your face,” the lawyer, who asked to remain unnamed, told the station of the May 31 attack. “You just don’t know what you look like. My eye was bloody, totally shut.”
The victim, who works on behalf of children, families and immigrants, said she was walking back to work around noon that day when she first noticed her would-be attacker. She said she saw the suspect suddenly reach her arm back but figured she was just dancing. The woman was actually winding up to hit her, however.
” … The woman who hit me said, ‘White b—-,’ and was laughing that she hurt me,” she recalled. “I felt like I was going to pass out but I tried not to. And I went over to the first person I saw and said, ‘Do I have teeth in my mouth?’ ”
The victim told police it was an African-American woman who attacked her, saying she never saw the assault coming. She said cuts and bruises were still visible on her face several weeks after the incident.
She’s since issued this message to her attacker: “I really hope you get the help you need, and that you never do this to anybody else.”
As news of the incident spread, some folks started questioning the validity of the woman’s claims, arguing that it was just “fake propaganda.”
This sounds like a fake propaganda story..Notice they have surveillance of the "suspect" walking, but no surveillance of the alleged "attack" – Woman Arrested in Metal Makeup Box Face Smash of White Lawyer on NYC Street https://t.co/RwbWJghWBW via @nbcnewyork
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) June 21, 2018
This is definitely propaganda! New York news media outlets are notorious for posting false footage of black people with no proof to support their criminalizing narrative!
— Black Pride 1st (@Jamal43295747) June 22, 2018
These types of stories randomly pop up when whites supremacists are constantly being exposed. It is almost like a wrench used to say “see they do racial attacks too!” “This is why we call the police on these n words!”
— Killmonger’s Cousin (@ThatBOL_Fox) June 21, 2018
The chose THIS as a story to distract?😏 pic.twitter.com/hVj9P7sytW
— THE LEFT-HANDED VILLAIN (@lefthandedvilln) June 22, 2018
How much y’all wanna bet this white chick was mouthin off prior to getting hit with the “beat box.” pic.twitter.com/BZ9S8BnDuJ
— DAP (@Black_Action) June 22, 2018
Police haven’t said whether they’ll charge Bell with a hate crime.
