Hate Crime: Florida woman caught on camera pepper spraying four Asian women in New York has been tracked down and arrested

Following the viral video of a woman pepper spraying four Asian women in a racially motivated attack in Manhattan last week, police tracked her down and arrested her.

During the June 10 altercation, the defendant, Madeline Barker, 47, was recorded on tape hurling racial obscenities at the victims, including “Go back to where you came from” and “You don’t belong here.”

The incident, which occurred in a public plaza in the Meatpacking District, spurred a search for the unidentified woman, whom internet users called ‘Karen.’

The woman, who was wearing a bright pink pashmina and Jacqueline Onassis-style sunglasses during her outburst, is now in custody, according to police.

Barker, a Florida native, is now facing hate crime charges in connection with the attack, and was due in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday to face accusations of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, and harassment as a hate crime.

The attack, which left one victim unable to open her eyes, occurred in the midst of a wave of anti-Asian violence in the City That Never Sleeps.

The four victims, who requested anonymity, told ABC 7 that they were looking out a floral installation when the woman suddenly got into a dispute with them and pepper sprayed them after accusing them of harassing her.

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

A bystander then filmed the victims walking away from the argument, but the Karen continues to yell at them and walks up behind one of the women and blasts her directly in the eyes with the pepper spray before leaving the area.

Police said the incident was currently under investigation and was being treated as a hate crime.

According to the victims, Barker went on a racist tirade as she pulled out the pepper spray on the Asian women.

‘[She was] saying, like, “Go back to where you came from, you don’t belong here,”‘ one victim recalled to ABC 7.

‘She pointed to an Asian bystander who was a man, we didn’t know who he was, pointed at him and said, “Take your ***** back to your country.”‘

The victims claimed that after the assault, one of them got a message from someone else who had allegedly ran into the same women earlier in the day, saying the Karen had pepper sprayed three others, including a 13-year-old girl.

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

Despite hearing racist insults as a child, another victim stated that this was the first time any of them had been physical victims of a hate crime.

Hate crimes have been on the rise in New York City and across the country, with the NYPD claiming a 96 percent increase in hate crimes in 2021, with 133 Asian Americans facing horrific and hazardous discrimination in the city.

Hate crimes are up 31.1 percent from last year, with one of the most recent attacks occurring in April, when a Chinese food delivery worker was shot and killed.

Police arrested Glenn Hirsch, 51, a man obsessed with duck sauce, when Zhiwen Yan, 45, was shot and died in Queens following an argument ‘over duck sauce.’

Hirsch has pled not guilty and is being held without bail, much to the chagrin of the Asian community, who protested the decision, calling the father-of-three’s murder a hate crime.

Steven Zajonc, 28, of Florida, was arrested in March after barricading himself in the New York Public Library after reportedly attacking seven Asian women over the course of a two-hour rampage throughout Manhattan.

The murder of Michelle Go, 40, who was crushed to her death on a subway platform in Times Square, horrified the city at the start of the year.

COVID-19’s origins in China have been blamed for an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans, and former President Donald Trump referred to coronavirus as “kung flu” or “the China virus.”

The attacks come as violent crime in the city continues to grow, with felony assaults up 19.5 percent this year compared to the same time last year, with the NYPD reporting 10,929 cases as of Wednesday.

Robberies have witnessed the most significant increase, with 7,187 incidents reported so far this year, up 40.3 percent from last year at this time. The number of rapes has also increased by 16.9%.

Although the number of murders and shooting victims has decreased by 11.5 and 8.1 percent, respectively, overall crime in the city has increased by 38.35 percent.

The number of offenses committed in public transportation has increased by 53 percent.

Residents are so afraid of public transportation that 85 percent want more transit cops in the terminals, something Mayor Eric Adams, 61, pledged but hasn’t implemented.

According to the SCRI, 63 percent of respondents support metal detectors in police stations.