LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — An accused shoplifter pepper-sprayed a mother and her two children while the bystanders were attempting to take a picture of the getaway car’s license plate, police said.
Sierra Zerbe, 19, faces charges of child abuse and battery, records said.
On June 14, Las Vegas Metro police received a call from a business on Sahara Avenue near Hualapai Way for a report of a battery, they said.
Zerbe reportedly was running out of the store with a man with a “shopping cart full of clothes” and “security running out after them,” police wrote in an arrest report.
The woman and her two children asked store employees what was happening and noticed Zerbe and the man were “loading [clothes] into the trunk of the car” parked next to hers.
The woman left the store to take a picture of the car’s license plate “to assist in further prosecution” when Zerbe got out of the car and pepper-sprayed her and the two children, police said.
Zerbe reportedly said, “You got a problem with something? You got a problem with something?” when pepper-spraying the group.
Police tracked the car to the south valley, later detaining Zerbe on June 22, they said. Zerbe remained at the Clark County Detention Center as of Tuesday pending house arrest.
The children’s ages were not released.