Report: Woman Charged for Molotov Attack on NYPD Officers

A woman from upstate New York was charged with four counts of attempted murder after tossing a molotov cocktail at a New York City Police Department (NYPD) vehicle with several police officers inside as riots raged over the death of George Floyd on Friday evening, according to a local report.

WABC reports:

One of two sisters from the Catskills allegedly involved in a Molotov cocktail attack on cops is facing federal charges, along with two other people in a separate but similar incident during the Brooklyn protests Friday night, a law-enforcement source told Eyewitness News. In the incident involving the sisters, police said the Molotov cocktail was thrown at the NYPD van around 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue, outside the Brooklyn Museum, as violent protests convulsed parts of the borough.

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Samantha Shader, 27, was charged with four counts of attempted murder as well as attempted arson, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. She is now facing federal charges from U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the law-enforcement source said. Her sister, Darian Shader, 21, was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of justice. She is expected to be prosecuted by the Brooklyn District Attorney.

The sisters are reportedly still in police custody.

“It is by the grace of God… that we don’t have dead officers today,” New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a Saturday press conference. “Coming to an assembly premeditated with loaded firearms, with bricks, with Molotov cocktails, is the furthest thing possible from civil disobedience.”

“We practice de-escalation, but it is very difficult to practice de-escalation when you’re having a brick thrown at you, at your head,” he added.

According to Shea, one police officer’s teeth were knocked out during the riots.

“The answer for violence should not be violence or murder. And that is a mistake. And I think anyone that sees it needs to condemn it because it will not get us where we want to be,” he said.

Friday’s riots in New York City coincided with demonstrations across the country, with violent unrest occurring in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta.