An Edmonton woman captured on camera shouting racist slurs and mocking a man’s accent over a parking dispute last month has been charged.
In late August, Rahul Kumar recorded the heated exchange he had with the 44-year-old woman in a parking lot at an apartment building in the city’s southeast.
During a two-minute-long clip, the woman can be heard calling Kumar a “Paki” with “sh*t-coloured skin.” She also tells him to “Go back to your f*cking country, man” and appeared to spit on his vehicle as she drove away in her own car.
Kumar, an HR professional who moved from India to Canada seven years ago, described the interaction as “disturbing” during an interview with CTV Edmonton after the incident.
For her part, the woman appeared to be unapologetic when she called in to CTV Edmonton following the release of the video last month. She said she was “not a racist” and that she’s responsible for what she said.
“I can live with myself,” she said at the time. “I have no problem looking in the mirror… I love myself. I have no problem with what happened.”
Angelique Barfield was arrested and released on Sept. 15. She has been charged with causing a disturbance for the rant and mischief for allegedly spitting on Kumar’s vehicle.
Police said Barfield’s tirade was triggered by the parking lot confrontation and not by hatred so it’s not being called a hate crime.
“However, we would call this a hate incident because the hatred came in after the initial incident,” Sgt. Gary Willits from the Edmonton police’s hate crimes unit explained.
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
With a report from CTV Edmonton’s Bill Fortier
