Per reports, the 29-year-old woman, Da’Shonta, was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, stalking and reckless endangerment. The 46-year-old educator, later identified as J. Watkins, was reportedly taken to the hospital with injuries on her face, including a missing tooth.
The trouble between the two women started when the teacher confiscated a cell phone from Da’Shonta’s fourth grade daughter. The girl allegedly bit the teacher, requiring the girl’s mother to come to the school. While mother and teacher were meeting, the girl claimed that the teacher had choked her. “She is going to get it later,” Da’Shonta said of the educator, according to KDKA. Later that day, the teacher was stuck in traffic on her way home when a man and a woman got out of their car and approached her. The woman, alleged to be Da’Shonta, threw a brick through Watkins’ window, hitting her in the face. The woman then dragged the teacher out of her car and began punching and kicking her in the street before fleeing.
Watkins identified the suspect as Da’Shonta, shown above in her mug shot. The victim’s husband spoke to KDKA, but didn’t want to be identified because he was concerned for his family’s safety. “Sad and disappointed that people would go to such lengths against another human being over something so petty,” he said. The teacher’s husband also described her injuries, saying his wife is in a lot of pain but feels lucky to be alive.
“Her face was numb, she has lumps all along her forehead and all along the side of her face. It’s not disfiguring, but it shouldn’t be there. It was caused by somebody else doing something crazy,” he said.
When police found Da’Shonta after the assault, she told them that after she left the school, she went to a police station with her boyfriend to file a complaint against the teacher for allegedly choking her daughter. Da’Shonta then confessed to following the teacher from the school and punching her in the street. “I ain’t gonna lie, I did it,” she said, according to KDKA. Da’Shonta denies throwing a brick at the educator. We are republishing this story amid recent reports of a surge in violent crime across America during the COVID-19 pandemic.
