Simi Valley police are searching for a group of youths who allegedly sprayed a woman using a toy gun with urine-laced gel pellets and then one called her a racial slur June 5.
Officers with the Simi Valley Police Department were called about 1 p.m. to a shopping plaza at the northwest corner of Tapo Street and Township Avenue, near Valley View Middle School. The school’s website says June 5 was the last day of school, which was a minimun day.
The caller reported about 10 to 15 juveniles had used a gel blaster with urine.
The victim told officers that she was seated inside her vehicle with the window rolled down. Her daughter had hopped into the vehicle shortly beforehand and had expressed frustration over being struck by silly string, said Sgt. Rick Morton, a department spokesman.
During their conversation, the mother, who is Black, was sprayed with a substance that smelled like urine, police said in a news release. When the woman got out of her vehicle to address the youths, one juvenile in the group used a racial slur toward her, according to police.
Morton said at least one juvenile with a gel blaster was believed to be white and another was described as Hispanic. The race of the juvenile who used the N-word was not known, he said.
The group left the plaza on foot, the sergeant said. As of 7:30 p.m. no one had been arrested, he said.
Simi Valley police detectives are investigating.
Morton said because of their age and the initial crime, he anticipated any juvenile arrested would be cited and released with an order to appear in court at a later date.
It’s the latest report of a racially motivated crime by youths in Simi Valley.
In August, a group of teens attacked a Black man outside a movie theater on Tapo Canyon Road. Three teenagers were ultimately charged with felonies for assault with a special allegation of hate crime and sentenced to 240 to 270 days in a juvenile facility followed by electronic monitoring.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Simi Valley police probe assault with gel gun, hate crime
Reporting by Stacie N. Galang, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Stacie N. Galang, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
