Hate Crime of the Week

Jun 26, 2020
Madison police on Friday said the FBI is joining its investigation into an incident early Wednesday morning in which a biracial African American Madison woman says a group of four white men hurled a racial epithet at her before spraying her face with lighter fluid and setting her on fire.

The woman, 18-year-old Althea Bernstein, has said she suffered second- and third-degree burns to her face. Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Friday morning that the detective investigating the case is still reviewing any possible surveillance video of the incident and gathering other evidence, and has been in touch with Bernstein.

The FBI’s Milwaukee office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bernstein has told police and the news website Madison365 that she was waiting at a stoplight in her vehicle at State Street, possibly while on Gorman Street, with her driver’s side window down at about 1 a.m. when she was approached by four white men, one of whom yelled a racial epithet.

Bernstein described the men as in their early 20s and said they looked like “frat boys.” Two were wearing “floral shirts” and bluejeans and two were in all black and wearing masks, she told police. One wearing a “salmon-colored” floral shirt sprayed the left side of her face with what she thought was lighter fluid from a bottle and then threw a flaming lighter at her.

Bernstein said she was able to pat out the flames before she drove home, where her mother encouraged her to go to the hospital.

She reported the incident to police at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, the police report indicates.

The alleged attack has drawn nationwide attention as a possible hate crime and occurred around the same time Madison police were in a standoff in another part of Downtown with Black Lives Matter protesters after some of them tore down two statues, assaulted a state senator and threw an explosive device into the City-County Building.

Bernstein told ABC’s “Good Morning America” for a Friday segment that she hasn’t slept and doesn’t have an appetite. But she called the attack a “learning opportunity” for her attackers.

“I’m very, very hopeful that these men sort of see all the response and that they know that they hurt me and this something that’s going to affect me for a while,” she said. “And I really hope that they choose to improve themselves.”
https://journaltimes.com/news/local/fbi-to-join-local-investigation-into-alleged-burning-attack-on-madison-woman/article_ea5c7068-39e8-5f0d-8418-776dcc35f873.html