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Woman charged with multiple hate crimes

Prosecutors accused 23-year-old Jennifer Guilbeault of pepper-spraying an Uber driver in an anti-Muslim attack in New York City.

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A woman has been charged with multiple counts, including second- and third-degree assault as a hate crime, for using pepper spray on a 45-year-old Uber driver in an unprovoked attack in New York City earlier this year, prosecutors said.

Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, was charged with one count each of second-degree assault as a hate crime, third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree aggravated harassment in an indictment in the New York State Supreme Court, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors accused Guilbeault of pepper-spraying an Uber driver during an anti-Muslim attack on the Upper East Side in July.

According to the prosecutor's office, the incident occurred on July 31 at around 12:15 a.m. The driver was completing a ride for Guilbeault and another passenger who was sitting in the back of the vehicle.

The driver began praying in Arabic after stopping at a red light at an intersection, prosecutors said. At that point, prosecutors said, Guilbeault “leaped forward to the driver's seat, a can of pepper spray in his hand” and sprayed the driver in the face.

According to prosecutors, the driver felt burning, redness and pain from the pepper spray and called 911 minutes after the attack. Guilbeault was arrested at the scene.

New York television station WPIX reported in August that Guilbeault was charged with assault and battery as a hate crime, but denied that the attack was racially motivated.

“As alleged, Jennifer Guilbeault senselessly attacked a Muslim Uber driver while he was doing his job,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement Monday. “The victim is a hard-working New Yorker who should not face this kind of hate because of who he is. Everyone is welcome to live and work in Manhattan.”

A year later: Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate incidents have been on the rise since the October 7 attacks

Pepper spray attack caught on camera

The Uber driver, identified by multiple media outlets as Shohel Mahmud, told CBS New York and WPIX in August that he believed the incident was racially motivated and that he had worked fewer hours after the attack out of fear for his safety .

Dashcam footage captured by local television stations showed Guilbeault lunging forward and spraying pepper in Mahmud's eyes. Guilbeault then grabs Mahmud's arm and pulls him back as he tries to push her away.

Mahmud is seen unbuckling his seatbelt and jumping out of the car, but as the vehicle moves he immediately returns. He then puts the car in park mode while the second passenger pulls Guilbeault back.

When the second passenger asked Guilbeault why she attacked the driver, Guilbeault allegedly replied, “He's brown,” according to the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY).

The country's largest Muslim civil rights group condemned the incident

CAIR-NY, an arm of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., said in a statement Tuesday that it “welcomes” the charges against Guilbeault.

“We welcome the hate crime charges in this case and thank law enforcement for sending a clear message that those who perpetrate alleged biased attacks will face the consequences,” Afaf Nasher, executive director of CAIR-NY, said in a statement.

Nasher pointed to the recent rise in anti-Muslim incidents across the country. According to CAIR, the organization documented 4,951 bias complaints nationwide between January and June of this year – a 69% increase over the same period in 2023.

Earlier this year, CAIR reported that the organization received the “highest number of complaints it has ever received in its 30-year history,” with 8,061 documented complaints in 2023. Almost half of these complaints were reported in the last three months following escalating violence in Israel and Gaza in October 2023.

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