NEED TO KNOW
- April Morant and her children were blowing bubbles in their driveway when their neighbor allegedly got upset, police said
- The neighbor, Ada Anderson, 81, allegedly sprayed them with pepper spray
- Anderson is facing felony battery charges
An 81-year-old Florida woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly sprayed two young girls with pepper spray and called them racial slurs because they were blowing bubbles, authorities said.
On Friday, May 30, April Morant of Ocala called 911 to report that her neighbor, Ada Anderson, had allegedly “sprayed bear mace” on her and her two daughters, ages 6 and 3, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
Morant told deputies with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office that she and her daughters were in the driveway of their property playing with bubbles when the suspect walked to the metal fence separating their yards and sprayed the bear mace at them, the affidavit alleges.
The suspect allegedly yelled “stupid n—–s” at them while she sprayed them, Morant told the deputies. She said the suspect has called her and her daughters racial slurs “multiple times in the past,” the affidavit alleges.
The 6-year-old told a deputy that she was playing with the bubbles when Anderson allegedly came to the fence and sprayed them and that her “nose hurt” because of the spray, according to the affidavit.
Morant also said her lungs were irritated by the spray, the affidavit said.
Deputies found an “orange/brown liquid” on the fence and grass on the victims’ property, it said.
The substance, which a responding deputy later identified as pepper spray, irritated the deputies’ noses and throats, according to the affidavit.
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Deputies spoke to Anderson, who said the victims were “running up and down the fence and yelling at her so she opened her porch screen door and sprayed the pepper spray at them,” the affidavit said.
She claimed the pepper spray did not touch them because the porch is 40 feet away from the fence, according to the affidavit.
Anderson was arrested and charged with three counts of second-degree felony battery. She is charged with second-degree battery because the alleged attack was racially motivated, according to the affidavit.
Morant says she has had issues with Anderson since she and her family moved to the neighborhood in November, she told local outlet ClickOrlando.
“She tells us every day, like, an everyday occurrence, every day since we’ve been here, we don’t belong here and we are monkeys,” Morant told ClickOrlando. “And she calls us the N word. So, it’s always something. So, I know she’s doing whatever she can to make me move.”
Anderson is scheduled to appear in court on July 1.
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