The NYPD is looking for a woman, in what could be a hate crime, after she was seen squirting pepper spray at a group of young Asian women on Saturday.

The victims were four young women in their 20's from Queens, who have experienced anti-Asian racism, but nothing like this.

A woman sitting in a public plaza in the Meatpacking District on Saturday, hurled hateful language at the young women and then blasted them with pepper spray for no reason.

Three of the four victims of that attack spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News reporter Sonia Rincoln, but asked that they remain nameless and not be shown on camera.

They say they were enjoying a warm Saturday afternoon catching up with friends and checking out the flower installations in the Meatpacking District. That's when a stranger, who had her back to them sitting on one of the large stones on 9th Avenue, picked an argument.

"She turned around and she was like, 'you guys are trying to harass me,'" one victim said.

"I said, we're not trying to bother you," another victim said.

One of the victims said she even apologized to the suspect.

"Like I'm sorry, I didn't intend to make you feel that way," the victim said.

The group started recording when the woman unleashed a racist tirade and pulled out a can of pepper spray.

"Saying like, go back to where you came from, you don't belong here," one victim said. "She pointed to an Asian bystander who was a man, we didn't know who he was, pointed at him and said take your (expletive) back to your country."

"We distanced ourselves, we tried to do the right thing," another victim said.

The women and at least one bystander recorded as much of the bizarre incident as they could, despite feeling the burn of the pepper spray on their faces and in their eyes.

"It was so painful. I couldn't open my eyes for about 30 minutes," one victim said.

It turns out the four women attacked on Saturday may not have been the only ones. One of them later got a message from someone who said she got the same treatment from the same woman at the same location less than an hour earlier. In that case, they say the woman pepper sprayed and verbally abused three people, including a 13-year-old girl.

"Learning that she did this to other people, including a minor? That's not ok. She needs to be caught," one of the victims said.

They say as life-long New Yorkers, they're well aware of anti-Asian hate crimes and have had their guards up, but didn't see this coming

"It's not like we haven't had racist remarks towards us growing up, but this was like the first time we've ever felt it to this physical extent," one victim said.

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A bystander's phone camera captured the woman walking over and getting in one last blast of pepper spray.

Bystanders helped the women but seemed too afraid of the attacker to stop her from getting away.

The women say they are grateful to those who did try to help them even though the suspect escaped.

"I think it's important to be a good human civilian, and just like, make sure that even if you don't know that person, make sure they're okay. It's not a spectacle," one victim said.

The NYPD is investigating this as a hate crime and want to hear from anyone who recognizes the woman.

Asian women describe moment they were pepper sprayed by stranger in Manhattan (msn.com)

Asians 4 black lives matter. stop supporting the Chinese & give them a taste of their own medicine.  

No Filipinos! Singaporean is no longer Austronesian land but Chinese land! 

Jackfroot on Instagram: “🚨 “Take your ass back to your country ching chong.” Angry racist customer filmed on video saying some nasty things to a worker smh. 🤯😠😡…”

An anti-Asian attack in the drive-thru at McDonalds draws a crowd urging an end to hate

Dozens of activists rallied on Friday, June 17, standing beside members of a Filipino-American family who were the victims of an anti-Asian attack in May when a man in a Jeep bumped their vehicle as they waited in the drive-through of a McDonalds in North Hollywood.

The Roque family was surrounded by activists gathered outside a Van Nuys courthouse calling for justice to be brought against suspect, Nicholas Weber, who has been charged for assaulting the family’s father and mother who, along with their daughter, were getting fries at a McDonalds on Victory Boulevard, on May 13.

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“We’re here to hold the government accountable for their lack of response and to demand that District Attorney George Gascon prosecute Nicholas Weber to the fullest extent of the law,” said Katie Joaquin, board president of the Filipino Migrant Center.

The victims allege that the father suffered a broken rib and the mother was strangled but survived. In a video by their daughter, a man can be seen verbally attacking the family with racist language and motions mocking their Asian background.

The District Attorney’s Office pressed charges against Weber on June 5 for hate-motivated battery, including a felony offense connected to “serious bodily injury.” An arrest warrant was issued for Weber after he failed to appear for a June 8 court hearing.

Patricia Roque, the daughter, said they are “still fearful for our lives,” and have learned that the alleged attacker lives near them in North Hollywood. The family and neighbors are concerned that he will continue to target them.

The activists who gathered on Friday belong to groups active in the Filipino community, including those who fight for labor rights. They chanted “Justice for the Roque family,” and urged authorities to do more to investigate and prosecute the hate-crime case.

Some were concerned that the case was not being fully investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Joaquin, of the Filipino Migrant Center, said members of the Roque family had taken up causes for their community, and now it was the community’s turn to stand up for the family.

She said she first met the mother, Nerissa Roque, when she fought to “recover back wages (for healthcare workers) from a big millionaire employer.”

Nerissa’s son, Patrick, is an activist “fighting for the rights and welfare of migrant workers,” Joaquin said.

Other groups who rallied behind the family included the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), Migrante Los Angeles, Kabataan Alliance, the Bayanihan Kollective, and Anakbayan.

Patricia Roque told the Los Angeles Daily News she was disappointed by law enforcement’s response to the attack on her parents. She said police arrived an hour after the incident was reported. She alleged that Weber was taken to a hospital, released and issued a citation. She says officers told her family that Weber should have been taken to an LAPD station.

Now, she’s worried that Weber may target her family and others, after he failed to show up for his hearing.

The family’s attorney, Sandy Roxas, claimed on Friday that it often takes such rallies to spur law enforcement to take hate-crime cases seriously.

“It’s really unfortunate that these kinds of Asian hate cases are not really a priority, unless the media and the community get involved, and attorneys get involved,” Roxas said.

The incident comes after a string of anti-Asian hate incidents nationally and in Orange County. Locally, in 2020, a Filipino-American woman was the victim of verbal abuse from a woman who filmed her while while screaming racial epithets.

Patricia Roque, who described herself as an introvert, said she has decided to speak out more because people in her community and other communities vulnerable to hate attacks should not have to face such a reality.

At one point, she cried while listening to a performer recite a poem about attacks on Asian women. She has been composed during media interviews about the attack at McDonalds, she said, but in that moment says, “It hit me that the Filipino community … the Asian community and other vulnerable communities have been dealing with this for years.”

“And it just hit me that this has been going on for so long, and we just stood back and watched it happen, and that’s unfortunate,” she said.

An anti-Asian attack in the drive-thru at McDonalds draws a crowd urging an end to hate (msn.com)