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Indian family with toddler among 8 hurt in San Antonio pepper spray attack by screaming woman

An Indian family with a toddler were among the eight people pepper-sprayed on a San Antonio River Walk boat over the weekend.

Updated on: Nov 24, 2025, 06:37:09 IST
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An Indian family with a toddler were among the eight people pepper-sprayed on a San Antonio River Walk boat over the weekend. Footage widely shared online shows the perpetrator, a woman, yelling at everyone before she pepper sprayed them.

A woman (L) was filmed hurling obscenities before pepper spraying 8 people (Instagram/@america_nri_la_frustration)
A woman (L) was filmed hurling obscenities before pepper spraying 8 people (Instagram/@america_nri_la_frustration)

Here’s what happened

The disturbing incident unfolded on the evening of November 15, Saturday, on board a Go Rio boat tour in San Antonio, Texas. According to a KSAT report, a woman became agitated after being asked to lower the volume on her phone and went on to pepper-spray several tourists.

The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) said the boat operator asked the woman to turn her phone down. When she grew upset, the operator stopped the boat to allow her to get off. After stepping off, the woman began verbally attacking the passengers and then pepper-sprayed eight people on board, including a young child.

Witnesses told officers that the woman walked onto a nearby bridge after exiting the boat and sprayed pepper spray down onto the barge, striking the victims. Witnesses said that the pepper spray appeared to be hanging from her bag.

The woman fled the scene and has not yet been located, police said.

Child seen in distress

Disturbing footage of the incident shared on TikTok shows the toddler wiping their eyes and crying in distress.

Screengrabs from the video were shared by a popular social media page dedicated to NRIs. “Woman pepper sprays Indian family amid phone volume dispute on San Antonio riverboat,” read the on-screen caption.

In the comments section, Instagram user @suren_dm said that the Indian family in the pepper spray attack are his friends. They are now planning to file charges against the woman, Suren said.

Meanwhile, tourists visiting San Antonio said they were surprised by the lawlessness on display in the clip. “I mean, it’s absolutely wild — pepper-spraying a bunch of people for no reason,” said Andy Moran, visiting from Missouri, told KSAT.

  • Sanya Jain
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Sanya Jain

    Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More