Authorities are looking for a woman they say was seen on camera chucking a bottle at a 37-year-old jogger and yelling a racial slur in Queens last month.
The NYPD released surveillance video early Wednesday in the Aug. 17 noon attack near 53rd Place and Broadway. It shows a white woman walking along a sidewalk. Suddenly, a Black woman jogs into the frame from the other corner. The other woman appears to yell something at her and then throw a glass bottle.
The jogger, Tiffany Johnson, appears startles for a moment but then runs off. She wasn't hurt, police said, but Johnson said the woman yelled racial slurs at her.
"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," Johnson told NBC New York, adding that she was concerned for her safety.
However, the video doesn't capture what Johnson said happened next.
"She did follow me, kept pursuing me. People saw it, people were getting upset, somebody even threw a bagel in her direction," Johnson said. "It was scary, I didn't want to see anyone get hurt, I just left."
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The avid runner said she jogs several times a week, and this incident took place during what was supposed to be a relaxing 5 kilometer run for Johnson.
"At the time, I just wanted to move on with my life and forget it ever happened," Johnson said. "I was glad it got caught (on video) and I could take it to the police."
Neighbors in the area said that the attacker is known to them, and possibly lives in a complex nearby. Johnson said she has a message for the woman if she ever encounters her.
"I would definitely say to her, 'I'm not the n-word. Nobody is the n-word. She needs to do some soul searching as to why she needs somebody to be that because that's not what I am, that's not who we are," Johnson said.
The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident and is looking for the woman seen hurling the glass bottle. Anyone with information on the attack is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
