Hamilton woman arrested after racist rant in Niagara mall parking lot caught on video

A widely shared video of a woman using racist taunts to berate another woman in a Niagara-on-the-Lake parking lot has led to the arrest of a Hamilton resident.

The incident happened Boxing Day at the Outlet Collection at Niagara mall on Taylor Road.

On Monday, Niagara Region police said they have charged Patricia Zammit, 51, with assault and uttering threats.

The incident was apparently sparked by a dispute over a parking space.

A Chinese woman shot the one-minute video and posted it to Facebook. It begins with a middle-aged woman berating her, making a racist remark.

Instead of stopping, she mocks the Chinese woman, singing “la-la-la-la” at her and showing her middle finger.

At one point, she approaches the Chinese woman and appears to punch at her cellphone. She appears to threaten the woman again, turning her back and lifting her coat as if to moon the woman.

Whatever sparked the incident is not shown in the video, nor was the victim identified.

Carly Rupcic, the mall’s marketing and tourism manager, said the woman who recorded the incident went to guest services before mall security took over. Security staff took her statement and decided to “escalate the complaint” to police.

“We don’t know the details of what happened before the video, but I can’t imagine any circumstances where it would be OK to speak to someone like that,” Rupcic said.

She said the mall had heightened security on Boxing Day with paid duty police officers on-site and controlling traffic.

“If it wasn’t busiest day we have ever had, it was one of them,” Rupcic said. “There was a lot of traffic coming through the mall that day. Whatever happened, there is no excuse for that behaviour. We did what we could to manage the situation and help the complainant.”

The woman with the cellphone told CHCH news that she wanted her name withheld for fear of retaliation. She said after pulling into the parking spot, she began filming when a woman threatened to scratch her car. It turned out the woman was also waiting for the spot, she said.

She said she emigrated from China seven years ago and that she has always felt welcome in Canada. She has since removed the video from Facebook, saying it was never her intention to have the woman attacked online.

At one point in the video, the apparent aggressor asks someone for her phone.

“I’m going to call 911. And I am going to tell them that she kicked me. You kicked me. I’m calling 911, and I’m going to have you charged . . . ,” she tells the Chinese woman.

Then she starts mimicking with gibberish in a mock Chinese accent.

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The Chinese woman’s friend tells the woman to “chill” to which she responds, “Tell her to chill” and the video ends.

Zammit will appear in court Feb. 3.