A Bronx rapper claims she’s been left “traumatized” after punching a fan in purported self-defense after the woman confronted her and her entourage at a Manhattan bowling alley last month.
Ashley Bautista, also known by her stage name, Young Ash, was arrested around 1:10 a.m. April 26 at The Gutter on the Lower East Side after she says the female fan wrapped her arm around her and recorded her before going after her friends.
“To keep a long story short, a fan ended up disrespecting me in person at a bowling alley,” Bautista told The Post outside a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday. “When she saw she wasn’t getting a reaction out of me, she went and started beefing with my other friends.”
“I was defending myself and my friends,” she continued. “I ended up punching her in front of the cop.”
Bautista, 28, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief. She was released on her own recognizance on Tuesday.
The fan, 25-year-old Imani Shepperson, was arraigned in the same courtroom on Tuesday — which Baustista found “insane.”
Shepperson was charged with assault, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment following the fracas.
A short clip of the fight provided by Bautista’s manager shows the two women exchanging blows as others watched.
Bautista claimed Shepperson “threatened” to fight her again before their arraignments on Tuesday. The rapper said she ignored the alleged provocation.
“Let me tell you something. I’ve never experienced what I’ve experienced today. I got into the court. And she had court with me. How was that safe and immediately I was threatened. Like how is that safe?” she asked.
Bautista said the bowling alley skirmish has left her “traumatized” and she now only goes outside accompanied by security.
The musician said she loves her fans, but noted some have become overly aggressive in their interactions.
“I want to shine a light on the fact that fans and supporters feel like they could push up on us because we’re supposed to act a certain way,” she said.
“For the supporters and fans — I know you guys rock with us. It feels like you really know us because you’ve seen us online a lot. But don’t make it okay to just come up to somebody and touch them. Curse at them. Call them all types of words and you don’t even know this person.”
Bautista was previously accused of luring her fans into a credit card scheme on Snapchat in 2018. She had flashed wads of cash on Snapchat, promising her followers fast money in exchange for their bank account information.
She was indicted with five co-defendants for allegedly using victims’ personal information, forged checks and ATM cards to withdraw cash from bank accounts in a scheme known as “card cracking.”
