TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa woman says she’s pressing charges against another woman who allegedly spit in her face. It happened during a contentious press conference Friday over prayer at a recent Tulsa Public Schools graduation ceremony.
Erika Stormont has felt emotionally consumed since Friday. 2News happened to interview her ahead of protesting the “Defending Religious Liberty” press conference featuring State Superintendent Ryan Walters.
“I believe in separation of church and state,” said Stormont on Friday. “I’m a veteran, I served 12 years.”
With tensions high, Stormont said minutes after that interview, she witnessed an older woman flip a hat off of her friend’s head. She then saw that same woman put her hands on someone. Stormont, who was recording the press conference with her phone at the time, turned the phone towards the woman and told her to keep her hands off people. While the video shows what appears to be the woman spitting at Stormont, her lips are out of frame. That video has since gone viral.
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“Her husband is pulling her back by her elbows, and she spit on my cheek,” said Stormont. She said it was degrading and belittling.
“I am worthy of my boundaries of feeling safe in public and peacefully protesting,” she said.
Her friend, Erica Watkins, witnessed the hat incident. Also a veteran, she said she’s tired of the Republican party using veterans as pawns.
“They’re the group that ‘supports the troops’ and all of this until the second you disagree with them,” said Watkins. “Then you get spat on, hit, assaulted.”
2 News blurred the image of the woman in the viral video because she has not been charged. However, her face is all over social media. Many comments include hateful statements toward both women.
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Stormont said vigilante justice isn’t the answer. She just wants the police to hold the woman accountable.
“I wish no harm,” she said. “If she was here right now and fell over, I would be the first person over there trying to resuscitate her.”
Stormont has filed an online police report, but Tulsa Police tell us the case hasn’t been assigned yet.
We reached out to the only number we had for the woman in the video, left a message, and haven’t heard back.
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