A 62-year-old woman is facing assault charges in New York City after she went ballistic protesting at the United Nations and allegedly attacked a senior advisor to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The encounter began Thursday afternoon when the woman identified as Patricia Schuh allegedly shined a blinding light in the face of HHS aide Sara Kennedy and yelled “Free Palestine,” chasing her across a lobby and into a bathroom while screaming “slut,” the New York Post reported.
Kennedy (no relation to her boss) “ran to the bathroom then a bathroom stall to avoid Patricia but she followed her into the stall screaming and scratched her right eye, possibly with her phone or jewelry,” sources told the Post.
The aide was at the U.N. headquarters at 45th Street in support of HHS Secretary Kennedy who was meeting Thursday with officials about the prevention of noncommunicable diseases.
Schuh has been charged with assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, Fox News Digital reported. The individual was released from custody Friday night and is expected in court on Nov. 13, according to the report.
Fox News Digital also interviewed Kennedy, though the outlet only identified her as an “official” in its report. She said she was first confronted by Schuh in a U.N. hallway.
“It was very disorienting,” she said. “Once I took a step back and regained my footing, it didn’t stop. I realized what was happening. I realized I was being yelled at and that the light was also a recording device.”
When she tried to get away, the woman followed closely behind, with the protester calling her a “fascist” and a “Nazi.”
She said the woman continued filming and screaming when she followed her into the restroom and began pushing the door, trying to get into the stall with her.
Kennedy waited for the screaming to stop and left the bathroom, hoping the woman was gone, but she was waiting for her and continued following her down the hallway. The aide was eventually was able to get away.
“It felt very political in nature,” she told Fox Digital. “Secretary Kennedy gets a tremendous number of bows and arrows and threats that he deals with, but it seems that it’s not enough, and it is trickling down.”
“An HHS official was followed into a bathroom, recorded, physically assaulted and verbally accosted by a deranged leftist at the U.N. who somehow entered the venue past multiple layers of security,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told the news outlet.
She linked the lapse in security to the stopped escalator and malfunctioning teleprompter incidents President Donald Trump experienced during his visit to the U.N. this week.
“Thankfully, the official is safe,” Kelly said. “And the lunatic was arrested, but this is part of a disturbing and dangerous set of failures by the U.N. after their sabotage of President Trump ahead of and during his speech.”
Medics treated Kennedy’s eye injury at the UN. She declined hospital treatment. The Secret Service is also reportedly investigating the incident.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
