Ada Anderson, an 81-year-old Florida woman, was charged with battery after allegedly pepper-spraying a mother and her two children while they were playing with bubbles. Police documents further allege that Anderson yelled racial slurs at her victims.
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According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Law & Crime, the incident occurred on Friday, May 30. At the time, April Morant and her two children, ages 6 and 3, were outside their residence in Ocala, Florida, playing with soap bubble toys.
Suddenly, Anderson approached the metal which separated Morant’s property from hers, and allegedly sprayed bear mace on the three of them.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived shortly after and spoke with Morant. She revealed that Anderson carried a black canister with a black handle. She told deputies that she and her children, two daughters, were affected by the spray. Morant also provided a phone video of Anderson, with her allegedly holding the aforementioned canister.
Morant further alleged that, while they were being sprayed, Anderson yelled “stupid n—–s” a them. The mother added that Anderson had allegedly called them racial slurs in the past. She even provided video evidence of an incident that took place earlier in the day. Allegedly, the video shows Anderson saying “…neighborhood…f–king n—-r.”
Suspect Arrested
As per the affidavit, deputies inspected the fence, which displayed an “orange/brown wet liquid substance” on its surface. The liquid reportedly irritated the deputies’ noses and throats when smelled, and the liquid was determined to be pepper spray.
Anderson then told deputies that the children had been “running up and down the fence and yelling at her.” This, according to the affidavit, caused her to open her porch screen door and pepper-spray them. However, the signing deputy added that the screen door was approximately 40 feet away from the fence where the pepper spray liquid was found.
Ada Anderson was arrested and charged with three counts of battery. She has since posted her $6,000 bond, as per Law & Crime.
According to WESH, Morant thought that Anderson would be charged more severely given the alleged racial slurs used by the suspect.
“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 told the outlet.
Since the incident, April Morant started a GoFundMe to help her move out of the neighborhood.
“We can’t stay here,” Morant wrote. “I don’t want to wait for this situation to escalate even further.”