But even with the security camera footage, police struggled to identify her.
Inspector Grant Tetzlaff said police identified the woman yesterday.
It came after beat police responded to a report of a woman allegedly abusing and assaulting staff at a store downtown.
When the police officers relayed a description of the offender at the store over police radio, the investigators of the alleged hate crime realised it matched the description of the woman they were looking for, Tetzlaff said.
She was arrested at the store on Sunday and police then identified her as the suspect for the prior hate crime.
Police also charged the woman with another count of common assault for Sunday’s incident, along with a charge of drug possession and three counts of assaulting a police officer.
Victim had headscarf torn off, was thrown to ground and kicked
The victim of the September 2 incident described in a social media post having her headscarf snatched from behind by her attacker, who shouted at her to “go back to your own country”.
She also claimed her neck was left with marks from the force of the scarf being yanked from her head.
She said several bystanders did not intervene even after she was thrown to the ground and kicked, suffering injuries to her face, back and ribs.
When she reported the assault to police, she discovered none of the bystanders who witnessed the assault had contacted them.
Concerns over hate-related crimes
The assault follows increasing concerns about hate-related crimes in Auckland.
Also in September, a bus driver was attacked in a racially charged tirade by passengers refusing to pay for public transport.
A passenger said to the driver: “This is my country, you are my servant”, and then punched him.
A 39-year-old woman was arrested in July after an attack on a schoolboy with a metal rod on an Auckland bus.
Of the 9351 hate incidents reported between January 2022 and January 2024, more than a third targeted people of Asian descent, followed by 8.9% aimed at people of colour and 7.2% targeting Māori.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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