An elderly Florida woman was charged after hurling racial slurs and spraying bear mace at two young Black children, ages 3 and 6, who were playing with bubbles in their driveway.
Ada Anderson, 81, was arrested and charged with felony battery following an incident on May 30 with her neighbors.
According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to a home in Ocala, Florida, where they learned that Anderson became upset with two children as they were playing with bubbles.
The mother of the children, April Morant, told deputies she saw Anderson walk to a fence separating their properties, then spray pepper spray in their direction and call them racial slurs, according to an arrest affidavit cited by WKMG.
Morant reported that the spray touched her and the girls and affected her lungs. Her 6-year-old daughter also said her nose hurt because of the spray.
“What went through my head is I thought she had a gun,” April Morant told WESH. “So I literally kind of jumped, it startled me ’cause when she was to the fence, she was over the fence like this, and I didn’t know what was in her hand, cause I’m looking at her really quick, and then she sprayed it.”
Morant said this isn’t the first time she and her family have encountered issues with Anderson. She said the 81-year-old has called them racial slurs in the past.
Anderson defended herself to deputies. She’s heard on bodycam video telling them, “You really don’t have any right doing this. When do I get the pictures back that I can show you what they’re doing?”
According to the affidavit, Anderson told deputies that the children were running up and down the fence line while yelling at her, so she opened the door to her porch and sprayed liquid at them. She claimed it did not touch them because they were 40 feet away.
Deputies found an orange/brown liquid on the fence and grass on the victims’ property, which they said irritated their noses and throats.
Anderson was booked into jail for three counts of battery. She was released after posting a $6,000 bail.
Morant thought she would face more charges. She plans to file a restraining order and raise money to move her and her daughters out of the neighborhood.
“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,” Morant said. “For you to do the bear spray stuff, like I feel like I don’t know what you have in that house. I don’t know. I don’t want to be by her.”
Marion County jail records reveal that Anderson was arrested in 2017 and 2019 for stalking and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
