46°
Lizbeth Vazquez, 19, was already facing rioting charges in New York City, Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton said Monday.
Vazquez “sprayed the officers with MACE and threatened bodily harm as an unruly group was asked to disperse” during a protest against ICE detainment of immigrants at the jail that erupted into a couple of brief skirmishes on Saturday, the sheriff said.
She “secreted herself into the crowd of protesters and officers were unable to take [her] into custody that evening,” he said.
Nine demonstrators who were arrested for aggravated assault on police, disorderly conduct and other offenses on Saturday. Cureton noted that eight of them "are neither residents of Bergen County nor the state of New Jersey. All but one were verified as New York residents."
SEE: Bergen Sheriff: Eight Of 9 ICE Protestors Arrested Are From NY, Officers Pepper-Sprayed, Bit
Vazquez became the 10th when she returned on Sunday and was identified and captured a block or so from the county lockup in Hackensack.
Vazquez remained held Monday in the Bergen County Jail pending a hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack on charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, weapons possession, making terroristic threats, rioting and criminal trespassing.
Cureton said Vazquez – who’d been quoted in newspaper stories in Westchester following a protest rally there – was arrested in New York State last month for rioting, disorderly conduct, and obstruction.
Vazquez and her sister were interviewed by a Hudson Valley news organization during a protest in Yonkers earlier this year.
Her sister told LoHud.com that their family had migrated to the United States from Mexico for a better life but found racism and "white privilege."
******
ALSO SEE: Outrage continued to mount against a group of protestors who harassed a beloved Hackensack priest, cursing and calling him a rapist, prompting police protection for the church as long as anti-ICE demonstrations at the nearby Bergen County Jail continue.
******
Click here to follow Daily Voice Bergenfield and receive free news updates.
