Yet another viral video has led to the arrest of a crazed white person attacking people of color in public. This time, let’s head to Summerville, South Carolina. Just outside of Charleston, this town of 50,000 prides itself on its verdant pine trees and flowers, and lays a dubious claim as the “Birthplace of Sweet Tea.”
It’s also home to 38-year-old Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, who took time out of her Sunday afternoon to accost and assault a 15-year-old teen at a neighborhood pool. According to police, witnesses stay that as soon as they entered the pool, Sebby-Strempel, who is white, allegedly confronted the teenager and his friends (who, surprise, surprise, are black) and insisted that "they did not belong and they had to leave" the pool, despite the fact that they had been invited by a friend.
The teen said he and his friends were respectful and began leaving the pool, but said Sebby-Strempel called them "punks" and used racial slurs, the report said.
She then walked toward the 15-year-old and hit him in the chest, and followed him toward the exit and "hit him in the face at least twice," according to the report.
"Sebby-Strempel is clearly the aggressor in the assault even going as far as to continue to assault the victim as he was walking away from her," the incident report said.
Predictably, Sebby-Strempel assumed law enforcement would be on her side, and also threatened to call 911 on the kids.
The video was posted to Facebook by a relative of the victim, and quickly went viral. By Monday, Summerville deputies had identified the boy’s assailant and arrived at Sebby-Strempel’s home to arrest her for third-degree assault.
That’s when Sebby-Strempel, dubbed “Pool Patrol Paula” by social media, made things much, much worse for herself.
When deputies showed up to Sebby-Strempel's home on Monday, June 25, to charge and arrest her for the pool incident, the sheriff's office says Sebby-Strempel also assaulted two detectives.
According to the sheriff's office, Sebby-Strempel pushed one detective into a wall, injuring his knee, and then bit a second detective on the arm, breaking the skin.
Though the victim’s family requested no bail for Sebby-Strempel, bond has been set at a mere $65,000 for the military wife and mother of two. She next appears in court July 11 for her poolside assault, and August 27 for two charges of assaulting police officers.
The assaulted teen, who has not been named, has been praised by his mother for the way he dealt with the incident.
Deanna RocQuemore [...] praised “the amount of restraint" her child used.
“My son did the right thing regardless of what may have been verbally said by anyone else, my child was assaulted three times," RocQuemore said.
In addition to facing multiple charges, Sebby-Strempel has also been relieved of her duties as an “independent consultant” for multi-level marketing company Rodan + Fields, after social media users discovered her affiliation with the skincare brand.
