The daughter of civil rights activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton was arrested over the weekend after police officers say she attacked a New York City cab driver.
Ashley Sharpton was celebrating her 30th birthday Saturday when police say she and several friends jumped into a taxi at 1:00 a.m. They didn't give clear directions, telling the cabbie to "just go, just go."
Without a destination, the cab driver soon pulled over and asked for clearer directions. Sharpton, sitting in the front passenger seat, responded by grabbing his keys out of the ignition and running out of the cab.
The cab driver followed her outside of the car in order to retrieve the keys, but Sharpton told him she didn't have them and later admitted throwing them into the street.
Video of the confrontation taken by one of her friends shows her punching the cabbie in the chest. "You hit my brother? Bitch," she said before attacking the man. The cab driver did not in fact hit Sharpton's brother.
Sharpton ran away, but was apprehended by the New York Police Department two hours later. She was given an appearance ticket for petty larceny and released. She avoided an assault charge because the cab driver was not injured, according to a NYPD source.
Sharpton defended his daughter Sunday after New York Daily News obtained video of the incident, saying she "just went and did something and smacked the guy in the face."