Screenshot of the Texas woman from the viral video.
A video of a woman hurling racial slurs, threatening and assaulting Indian-American women in US' Texas has gone viral on social media. The video showed Esmeralda Upton of Plano unleashing a profanity-laced rant on the Indian-American women while challenging their presence in the United States, threatening to shoot them and physically assaulting the woman shooting the video. The incident reportedly took place in a suburban Dallas parking lot.
Upton in a press release by the Plano Police Department, was arrested on Thursday and charged with assault, bodily injury, and terroristic threats. She was being held on a $10,000 bond.
An investigation is currently underway, and the incident is being treated as a hate crime, with the release indicating that additional charges may be forthcoming.
The video was shared on Facebook late Wednesday night and went viral on Reddit on Thursday in a post titled "Happened to some Indian friends last night in Plano." The video begins shortly after the altercation and shows Upton telling the women to "go back to India."
The woman then goes on to claim that she is Mexican American and says the group of four women isn't American.
"Everywhere I f***ing go you f***ing Indians are everywhere," Upton can be heard saying in the video. "If life was so great in India, why the f**k are y'all here?"
One of the women on the other side of the confrontation fired back with her own comment.
"If you are Mexican, why don't you go back to Mexico," the individual behind the camera can be heard saying.
Upton in the black dress is then seen swiping at one of the other women with her fist and then reaching for the phone recording her. Upton can be seen striking the person's phone multiple times. She then reaches into her purse while approaching another woman, saying, "Turn the goddamn phone off or I swear to god I'll shoot your a**."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement on Thursday, saying the organization called on law enforcement to investigate and bring charges against Upton, who was described by CAIR as "the alleged assailant."
"The level of vitriol and alleged physical assault against four Indian-American women in Plano is truly appalling," said Faizan Syed, executive director of CAIR. "This type of hate has no place in North Texas, and we call on law enforcement to investigate this incident as a hate crime."