Black woman speaks out after hit with bottle, yelled at while jogging in Queens
WOODSIDE, Queens (WABC) -- The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating after a Black woman was struck by a bottle while jogging in Queens, and authorities are hoping surveillance video of the incident will lead to an arrest.
It happened around noon on Monday, August 17, at the northeast corner of 53rd Place and Broadway in Woodside.
Authorities say 37-year-old Tiffany Johnson was jogging when an unknown female approached, threw a glass bottle at her, shouted a racial slur, then continued to yell at the victim.
"She was so loud and aggressive," Johnson said Wednesday. "She did call me the N-word, and I mean I'm not an N-word, none of us are, but the reality is that this woman felt that she needed me to be that and I would just say that she needs to look into herself as to why."
Johnson wasn't injured and continued to jog away, but she said even after the camera stopped rolling, the suspect was relentless.
"She followed me up the block, was screaming 'get out of here, go back to Africa...N-word,'" Johnson said.
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People tried to shoo the suspect away, but Johnson was afraid the situation would escalate.
"When you have adrenaline going, the first thing for me was to get out of the situation," she said.
At the time, Johnson didn't know someone was recording the incident. She said she spotted it on social media a couple days ago and went to police knowing she had proof.
Johnson said it has been a soul-searching process for the suspect who has a lot of work to do on herself.
"Her issues, whatever her actions were, are a reflection on her, it's not my problem, it's her problem," Johnson said.
The woman is described as being in her 40s with a light complexion, around 5-foot-5 and 160 pounds, with blue eyes and long blond hair.
She was last seen wearing dark sunglasses, a black tank-top and white shorts.
Johnson has not gone back to that neighborhood since the incident, but has received tremendous support from groups like Black Girls Run.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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