Woman charged with hate crimes after allegedly spitting on Jewish children in New York City

New York City police arrested a 21-year-old woman and charged her with hate crimes for allegedly harassing and spitting on Jewish children in Brooklyn, authorities said Friday.

Brooklyn resident Christina Darling was picked up and charged with three counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17, menacing and aggravated harassment — with the latter two accusations classified as hate crimes, according to a statement from the NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force.

Darling is suspected of being the woman photographed a week ago Friday at 12:35 p.m., in front of 4017 Avenue P in the Flatlands neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn, police said.

Video captured a woman in an orange sweatshirt who allegedly “approached an 8-year-old and two other children, made anti-Jewish statements, then spat on the them,” according to an NYPD statement.

Public records show the 21-year-old and her mother live four blocks, about a third of a mile, from the crime scene. Her mother declined comment when reached by phone on Friday afternoon.

The suspect could make her first appearance before a Brooklyn judge on Friday night, according to a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. It wasn't immediately clear if Darling had hired or been assigned an attorney by Friday afternoon.

Jewish communities around the nation are on heightened alert following an armed takeover of a synagogue near Dallas on Saturday.