A 45-year-old Brockton woman is facing four felony counts after police say she pepper-sprayed her neighbor and the neighbor’s three children during a confrontation at a Walnut Avenue apartment, including one child just 4 years old who was rushed to the hospital. The woman told officers she was defending herself, citing a prior dispute with her neighbor that the neighbor denies ever happened.
Officers were dispatched to the apartment building on Walnut Avenue on August 11 for a welfare check, according to The Enterprise. Once there, police say the alleged victim reported that her neighbor had pepper-sprayed her and her children, including the 4-year-old, per the police report cited by the outlet. That child was transported to Boston Medical Center South for evaluation.
Inside the suspect’s apartment, officers said they recovered the pepper spray along with a kitchen knife sitting on the counter and a set of brass knuckles, according to the police report. Police then took the woman into custody.
Self-Defense Claim Meets a Denial
The Brockton woman claimed she had acted in self-defense, telling officers the confrontation stemmed from a prior dispute with her neighbor, per the police report. The neighbor, however, denied that any such earlier dispute had taken place, leaving the two accounts of what led to the pepper-spraying in direct conflict…