NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A woman who pleaded guilty to tossing a lit Molotov cocktail at an occupied NYPD van during the 2020 George Floyd protests in Brooklyn was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison.
Federal prosecutors said Samantha Shader, 29, traveled from her home in Saugerties, New York, on May 29, 2020, to demonstrate in a planned march to protest Floyd's murder days earlier by Minneapolis police officers.
Before going to Brooklyn, Shader invited co-conspirator Timothy Amerman to "go down to the City to cause some hell," and when he declined, she obtained from him numerous glass bottles that Amerman believed Shader would use as projectiles against police and counter-protesters.
According to prosecutors, Shrader lit the wick of the Molotov cocktail and hurled it against an NYPD vehicle manned by four police officers assigned to crowd control amid a large protest march near the Brooklyn Museum on the night of May 29, 2020. A witness' cellphone video captured the incident.
As she threw the Molotov cocktail, Shader called out to the protesters around the van to "GET OUT THE MOTHERF****ING WAY!" The Molotov cocktail struck the van, shattering two of its windows, but did not break and ignite.
The four officers escaped the vehicle and arrested Shader, who, according to prosecutors, bit one of the cops on the leg while resisting arrest.
Following Shader's arrest, the FBI identified Amerman as the man who had provided glass bottles to Shader and arrested him on July 3, 2020.
Amerman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit civil disorder on March 26, 2021. He is currently awaiting sentencing and faces a maximum of five years in prison.
"The defendant's use of a Molotov cocktail was a violent event … four officers were sitting in that van whose lives could have ended in death or injury had that Molotov cocktail gone off," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Algor said at her sentencing.
NBC 4 reported that Shader was seen wiping away tears at points throughout the hearing, saying she wanted "to apologize to everybody. I want to apologize to the police ... I apologize to my family."
She said she wished she "could take this back. What I did was wrong and disrespectful. I hope you can forgive me. And everyone else there."
"I have no excuse for what I did. So I'm not gonna try to make any," Shader added. "I am grateful for where I am right now in life."
In a statement, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that "today’s sentencing sends a clear message that no one may ever commit a despicable act of vandalism, especially one that endangers the lives of police officers – whose mission is to ensure people's right to demonstrate peacefully."
Related
Related
