A transgender woman faces hate crime charges after allegedly spraying multiple New York City residents in two separate boroughs on two different days with an unknown eye irritant.
Thomas Heard, 37, was arrested on Saturday by the New York City Police Department after an attack against a couple outside of her Bronx apartment on Crotona Ave and E 187th Street, the second of her strikes. According to the New York Post, police said the suspect threatened the couple with a pair of scissors and a can of capsaicin, more commonly known as pepper spray, demanding to know whether or not the couple was white before spraying a 30-year-old male victim with the capsaicin. Heard allegedly brandished the scissors when another individual attempted to intervene to stop the assault and Heard fled.
Police said the first attack was on Friday where seven people were assaulted with pepper spray in New York City subway terminals and on 125th Street throughout Harlem, Manhattan, and the Upper West Side with every victim reportedly being white while Heard was yelling anti-white statements at victims. Heard also assaulted a 55-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman in the Bronx by kicking them and spaying them in the same area as the Saturday assault, police said.
“Crazy fucking white bitch!” Heard allegedly yelled. “I hate you!”
This was a common occurrence, according to Heard’s neighbors who said that Heard “hated white people” and “would stand on that corner and scream it.”
“She’ll just talk to herself, ranting, ‘White people are privileged and you have to bow down to them,'” according to another neighbor. “She would come by, like, ‘These motherfuckers think you owe them something.’ She must have some trauma associated with white people. You never know what goes on in someone’s mind.”
In an on-camera interview with PIX 11, someone claiming to know Heard said she used to be a “nice person” until she started smoking synthetic marijuana, more commonly known as K2 or spice.
Heard, who reportedly goes by Tasha, faces multiple charges including menacing as a hate crime, harassment as a hate crime, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the assaults in the Bronx and has not been charged yet in connection with the assaults in Manhattan. Heard has more than 60 prior arrests, including for assault and grand larceny.
There were no serious injuries as a result of the attacks, but multiple victims reported a burning sensation in their eyes.
