A young woman from upstate New York is in serious trouble for throwing a Molotov cocktail at an occupied police cruiser during protests in Brooklyn on Friday night has been charged with four counts of attempted murder.
Samantha Shader, 27, has been charged with throwing a petrol bomb at the NYPD vehicle – which had four officers inside – in Crown Heights shortly after 10.30pm.
The lit bottle did not explode, and no officers were injured.
According to a statement provided to DailyMail.com, the NYPD officers exited the cruiser and attempted to arrest Shader, who allegedly bit one of them on the leg.
Shader’s younger sister, Darian, 21, tried to interfere and was also arrested. She was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.
Both sisters – who hail from the town of Catskill – have a history of clashes with police at protests, a law enforcement source told DailyMail.com.
Their mother, Amy, said she had no comment when reached by phone by on Saturday afternoon.
The Shader sisters were among 3,000 demonstrators who took to the streets in New York City overnight as part of a series of nationwide protests over the death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday.
During Friday night’s New York protest a separate NYPD van was set on fire and another cop car was vandalized as activists vented their fury over a ‘racist’ policing system.
Around 200 demonstrators were arrested in the Big Apple.
At a press conference Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea stated: ‘It is by the grace of God that we don’t have dead officers today.’
Shea also stated that, while the vast majority of protesters gathered peacefully, some came with the deliberate intent to sow discord.
oming to an assembly, pre-meditated, with loaded firearms, with bricks, with Molotov cocktails is the furthest thing from civil obedience,’ he stated.
Shea revealed ‘countless’ officers were injured as protest spiraled out of control. Some are still in hospital. One officer had their teeth knocked out.
‘There was no discrimination as to whether it was a white officer, black officer, male officer or female officer. [They targeted] anyone in a uniform’.
Meanwhile, a 20-year-old protester allegedly suffered a violent seizure and was rushed to hospital in Brooklyn after being shoved forcefully to the ground during the demonstrations.
The woman has been identified by others at the scene as Dounya Zayer who has continued to post updates on her condition from hospital and claims she was ‘in no aggressive toward this police officer’.
Zayer took to Twitter from the hospital to post several videos to explain what had happened to her.
‘This was me, and I want to make one thing clear to all the people that are commenting lies below this video. I did NOT spit in this officer’s face. I was wearing a face mask. He told me to get out of the street and then immediately threw me out of the way,’ she wrote.
Whitney Hu, an activist also taking part in the protest, first posted the video of Zayer being flung to the ground by the police officer and lying still for several seconds before eventually holding her head as other protesters rush to help her and call for people to take his badge number.
‘The cop pushed her so hard at Barclays & she flung back. She is tiny. Now she’s in the ER after a serious seizure. I’m waiting for updates but have to wait outside because of COVID-19. Please keep my protest sister in your thoughts,’ Hu wrote.