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Albina Eshimbaeva
Now that’s bad chemistry.
A hateful Brooklyn high-school girl who wanted to “burn out” a rival classmate’s eyes dumped a beaker of hydrochloric acid over the teen’s head in a terrifying science-lab attack, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
“She deserved it,” Zhanna Smsarian, 16, allegedly told cops after she was arrested at Fort Hamilton HS on Wednesday.
Albina Eshimbaeva, 15, would have been blinded by the caustic liquid if it were any stronger than the school-grade 10 percent, the sources said.
Zhanna “was standing behind me,” Albina said outside her Fort Greene home. “All of a sudden, I feel liquid flowing down my forehead. I thought it was water until I turned and saw the beaker in her hand that had the acid label. Then my skin started burning.
“That made me uncomfortable — somehow, I knew something was gonna happen,” she said, explaining that earlier in the day, Zhanna was “giving me an evil grin.”
Zhanna, who lives in Bensonhurst, spent a night in jail before she was sprung on $7,500 bail yesterday. She darted from court in her ROTC uniform, pushing past photographers without saying a word.
“She has a lot of hate,” said a law-enforcement source. “She said she wanted to burn her eyes out.”
Classmates said there was a bad blood between the sophomore girls, who were both athletes and in junior ROTC together and once close friends.
Albina was squad leader and recently ratted out Zhanna for breaking the no-makeup rule.
“Zhanna was wearing nail polish, and she’s not supposed to, and Albina told,” a classmate said. “She flipped out. Zhanna’s weird, she’s always flipping out over little stuff.”
Albina said she had a feeling something bad was going to happen because earlier that day Zhanna “was staring at me and giving me an evil grin.”
And in the chemistry class before the lab, Albina said, Zhanna became aggressive and stole her assigned seat.
The feud came to a head in the lab the next period at around 10:45 a.m., when cops say Zhanna grabbed a beaker of the acid and splashed it over the head of Albina.
A teacher rushed over and flushed the teen’s eyes, and she was taken to Staten Island University Hospital.
School officials cleared the lab and called cops, who arrested Zhanna at about noon. She was charged with attempted assault — “attempted” because there were no injuries — and also booked for criminal possession of a weapon, possession of noxious material and harassment.
She’s also been disciplined by the school, said a Department of Education spokeswoman.
Albina was back in class yesterday bearing no scars from the attack, but her mother, Syrga Eshimbaeva, is now worried about keeping her at the high school.
“She had redness and irritation from the acid,” Eshimbaeva said. “I’m very angry — any parent would be.”
Zhanna’s lawyer, Igor Vaysberg, said outside Brooklyn Criminal Court that his client is a model student.
“She’s never been in any trouble before,” he said. “She’s an honor-roll student with excellent grades.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Ikimulisa Livingston