Biracial teen burned after white Wisconsin men douse her with lighter fluid, cops say
An 18-year-old biracial woman was driving through Wisconsin late Wednesday night, listening to some music with her driver’s side window down, police say.
Moments after she pulled up to a red light in downtown Madison, her neck and face were on fire.
Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case because of the “egregious nature of the assault and the national attention the case has received,” Madison Police Department spokesman Joel DeSpain told Madison365.
“I was listening to some music at a stoplight and then all of a sudden I heard someone yell the N-word really loud,” Althea Bernstein, who “works as an EMT while studying to be a paramedic and firefighter,” said in an interview Wednesday with Madison365.
She turned her head and realized that the racial slur came from four white men who may have been intoxicated based on the way they were walking, Bernstein told the outlet.
She told police one of them used a spray bottle to throw what she believed was lighter fluid, following with a flaming lighter, “causing the liquid to ignite,” according to the police report.
“My neck caught on fire and I tried to put it out, but I brushed it up onto my face. I got it out and then I just blasted through the red light … I just felt like I needed to get away. So I drove through the red light and just kept driving until I got to my brother,” she said, according to Madison365.
Bernstein called her mother, who encouraged her to go to the hospital, according to the police report.
Bernstein was treated for her burns “and will need to make follow-up visits to access additional medical care,” according to police.
“At first I didn’t even believe what had happened,” Bernstein told Madison365. “I grew up in Madison, on the East side, and my dad would take me to the Farmer’s Market every weekend, on those same streets. It just felt so weird to have these really happy memories there, and then now to have this memory that sort of ruined all of the childhood memories.”
“I never really knew someone could hate you just by looking at you.”
In a statement provided to the Associated Press, Michael Johnson, president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County, Wisconsin spoke on behalf of the Bernstein family that they were “saddened at what happened to Althea and the unprovoked attack on her body.”
“At this time, our family is asking everyone to respect our privacy as Althea is recovering from the burns on her face and neck.”
According to the AP, the incident occurred just a few blocks from the state Capitol where violent protests about the “arrest of a Black man after he shouted at restaurant customers through a megaphone while carrying a baseball bat” happened the day before.
On Wednesday, “about 40 people gathered peacefully outside the county jail where the man was being held,” the AP reported.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 6:38 PM.
