After a college student living in Queens, New York, was attacked and jumped by a trio over a parking spot, she is moving out of the neighborhood for good, even after the community has rallied around her with support.
On Monday, July 7, Jada McPherson was attempting to park in an open parking spot along a street in Queens when a mother and daughter, along with an unidentified male neighbor, began to attack McPherson both verbally and physically.
“It just all happened so fast,” McPherson told ABC 7 News. “Her agenda was to pull my hair. That was their main agenda, like it’s three against one, and I’m like 130 pounds, barely.”
The encounter escalated into a full-on brawl with the attackers swinging closed-fist punches at McPherson and pulling her hair. Racial epithets and derogatory remarks were hurled by both parties, including the mother calling McPherson “a monkey, b—” and the daughter calling her a “slave.” McPherson has also owned up to calling them an “immigrant.”
In the days since McPherson, a 21-year-old rising senior at Pace University, has made plans to move out of the neighborhood for good. She told the New York Post that her leasing company had even offered to relocate her elsewhere. After the brawl leaked online, the neighborhood and community from as far as Long Island held a rally in support of her.
The mother and daughter pair, identified as 45-year-old Andreea Dumitru and 21-year-old Sabrina Starman, have since been arrested and charged with assault and harassment. The two have also since apologized, especially in the wake of footage of the incident leaking online, leading to an onslaught of backlash, including death threats.
“I just feel like the death threats are unnecessary,” McPherson told the New York Post, despite still being upset herself. “I don’t think the death threats are necessary. I just feel the violence, especially to [her] son, is completely unnecessary. He shouldn’t be at fault for something that they did.”
“I’ll never do that again,” Dumitru said. “Ever. I learned my lesson. I will never do something like that again, and I will never condone something like that ever again.
“You want the parking? Take it. It’s not worth this. This is not worth it.”
Meanwhile, McPherson has also gained a new outlook on life in the aftermath of the fight that has reignited outrage around Black women’s safety and calls to protect Black women.
“It gives you a different look at life. Like, you understand what I’m saying, like certain things is just you just have to, like, let it be,” she told ABC 7.
