The NYPD said its looking for an unnamed woman accused of throwing hot coffee at a man at a Brooklyn playground in what is being called a hate crime assault.
A woman who allegedly hurled hot coffee and anti-Islamic statements at a father at a Brooklyn playground was arrested on hate crime charges, according to police.
The woman, identified as 48-year-old Hadasa Bozakkaravani, was charged with nine separate counts after her arrest on Tuesday, police said. Four of the charges were hate crimes. Bozakkaravani faces assault, reckless endangerment, aggravated harassment and assault on a person under the age of 11, all as hate crimes, according to police.
The district attorney's office said Bozakkaravani was expected to be arraigned late Tuesday or Wednesday morning.
The charges stem from an alleged incident at the Edmonds Playground on DeKalb Avenue on Nov. 7. The father, 40-year-old Ashish Prashar, was at the playground in Fort Greene with his 18-month-old son when the child went over to a boy playing basketball.
Prashar said a woman came charging over to him and asked if he supported Hamas.
"She goes 'You're a terrorist,'" Prashar said previously.
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Prashar, a political activist and writer, was wearing an Arab scarf of Keffiyeh to the playground he visits with his son daily. He said he received the scarf as a gift a decade ago while working in the West Bank under then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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"It was a gift given to me by a Christian-Palestinian," Prashar said.
The woman threw her phone and then hot coffee towards Prashar, who is of Indian descent, and his young son, police said.
"As I turned back, she threw hot coffee in my face, which if I didn't put my son down would have burned my son's face," he said.
Prashar was not injured during the incident, police said. Prashar said the woman left when a passerby stepped in to help.
"No parent should feel unsafe to take their child to a playground because someone decides you are less than human," he said.
