‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault
Paulina Reyes, 22, is accused of assaulting Francis Scales on a Route 7 bus earlier this month.
A former WHYY intern who pepper-sprayed a conservative influencer on a SEPTA bus was charged with simple assault and other crimes by prosecutors in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, officials said.
Video of the Jan. 19 incident between 22-year-old Paulina Reyes and 22-year-old Francis Scales quickly went viral on social media, garnering millions of views and spurring reactions from right-leaning influencers and Elon Musk.
During the confrontation, Reyes — whose internship with WHYY had ended before the incident — accused Scales of being a “fascist” and a “racist” for posting content online she viewed as insulting to Muslims and people of color.
Attorney General Dave Sunday, in announcing Thursday that his office’s mass transit prosecutor would oversee the case, said “violence will not be tolerated as a means to conduct political debate, protest, or exhibit differences.
“This type of violence is senseless, as we have an individual facing criminal charges over political disagreement,” the attorney general said in a statement.
In addition to simple assault, Reyes is charged with possessing an instrument of a crime, a misdemeanor. She also faces charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, which are summary offenses.
Reyes was arraigned Thursday morning and released without having to to post bail.
The mass transit prosecutor for Philadelphia, Michael Untermeyer, worked with SEPTA police to bring the charges, according to Sunday.
The special prosecutor position, created in 2023 to pursue crimes committed on SEPTA, had been slow to take cases up until last year.
It has drawn criticism from District Attorney Larry Krasner, who last year challenged the law that created the post, saying it was unconstitutional, unfairly singled out Philadelphia, and stripped his office of authority.
A spokesperson for Krasner did not immediately return a request for comment on the special prosecutor’s decision.
Footage of the South Philadelphia incident ricocheted across conservative media, and some influencers had accused Reyes of being an “Antifa agitator” and called for her arrest. Musk’s comments on X, suggesting Reyes had “violence issues,” generated hundreds of thousands of views alone.
Reyes told The Inquirer in an earlier interview that she had been defending herself against Scales, who was filming her, and that resorting to pepper spray was “not something I wanted to do.”
She said she has since received death and rape threats for her role in the confrontation. She did not return a request for comment Thursday.
Reyes and Scales knew each other from attending the Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a student.
Videos on Scales’ social media page, Surge Philly, show the commentator interviewing attendees at protests, asking them questions about charged topics such as immigration enforcement. He has also been a vocal critic of Krasner.
Scales said Reyes’ pepper spray got in his face and eyes, and Sunday, the attorney general, said Reyes also punched the man. A friend who was with Scales filmed the incident. Scales, too, filmed Reyes, saying he did so for his own safety.
Scales said in a statement that he was grateful for the attorney general’s decision to bring charges, and that he hoped that would deter others from similar actions.
“No one has the right to physically attack another person because of different opinions,” Scales said.