The white Catskills woman who allegedly attacked New York police with a Molotov cocktail during the height of George Floyd’s protests in the city claimed that three masked black people pressured her into an explosive act, according to new court documents.
In a series of videotaped interviews, Samantha Shader, 27, admitted that she threw the device, according to court documents, but said she did so at the behest of two black men and a black woman and that she felt compelled to comply because she was “The only white person in the area,” Shader said.
He even offered detailed descriptions of their appearances.
The man who handed him the bottle, he said, was a “thicker guy” with “skinny dreadlocks.” The second man was smaller and wore a hat, while the woman was thin with “fluffy hair” and they all wore dark clothing and covered their faces with dark-colored scarves, she allegedly told investigators.
The fearful man told him that “they were going to prove a point.”
The disclosure was made in a criminal complaint released Saturday that announces the arrest of Shader’s friend, Saugerties painter Timothy Amerman, 29.
Shader was arrested in the hours after the May 29 attack on the streets of Brooklyn, but the story she told police recently began to unravel when the FBI found Amerman, authorities said. No one was injured since the Molotov cocktail did not light up. Shader faces life in prison.
Authorities have not disclosed the motive for the attack, but uncovered a series of Facebook posts in which Shader advocated violence to resolve racial injustices.
“Blacks should be allowed to burn the country they built for free,” he allegedly wrote, according to the complaint.
Shader was charged in a seven-count indictment last month. She is detained at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
A note investigators found in the vehicle Shader drove to New York City took them to Amerman, who allegedly confessed that Shader planned ahead of time to attack police and counter-protesters, and that he gave him the supplies to do so.
Authorities recovered a bottle of Bulleit at the scene from a witness who said Shader threw it into the occupied New York police vehicle. Amerman told police that it is his bourbon of choice.
Amerman was arrested this week and is expected to appear in court Saturday afternoon in Albany on one count of civil disorder and one count of civil disorder conspiracy.
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