The woman charged with pepper spraying a freelance cameraman outside an Abbotsford homeless camp says she was acting in self defense – even as another journalist is coming forward saying she was threatened too.

Christina Violet Bentley, 39, who goes by Fae at the Gladys Avenue camp, told CTV news outside the Abbotsford courthouse that she carried the pepper spray because she wasn't sure what would happen when she approached cameraman Kevin MacDonald.

"I wasn't sure how many clowns he had in his little clown car," she said. "I'm homeless. I'm by myself. So yeah, I was carrying pepper spray."

MacDonald posted video of the encounter, which shows Bentley yelling, then crossing the street complaining that she doesn't want him recording video. There is a brief altercation off camera and she can be seen discharging the pepper spray.

"It was the worst pain I'd ever felt. The burning," said MacDonald.

MacDonald said he was recording video of the camp for a news story about a court ruling that protected the rights of homeless people to put up tents in camps at night if there was nowhere else to go.

Laura Rogers, a reporter with the Abbotsford News, also visited the camp Wednesday morning to do a story on the ruling. She said she was approached aggressively by the same woman in the video.

"She threatened to smash my camera. I said I was legally allowed to take pictures, beecause it's a public space. She ran across the street and started chasing me with a can of pepper spray," Rogers said.

Rogers left the camp, and said she doubted Bentley's explanation. "I didn't feel there was any self defense in someone running across the street to attack me."

Pastor Ward Draper told CTV News he has known Bentley for years, and said that an outburst like this isn't like her.

"There's a lot of stress in her life right now, and she made a bad choice," he said.

Bentley has been interviewed by CTV News without incident in other stories about the Abbotsford homeless camp and didn't threaten CTV crews outside the Abbotsford courthouse.

But two people who picked her up said that the constant presence of media as the camp has moved from place to place for more than two years, constantly under threat of shutdown, was stressful.

"This is my home," she said, adding that she became homeless in March 2012 after a fight at her previous address. She arrived at the camp on December 20, 2013. She said she believed that it was illegal for people to record video in a person's home, though Canadian law allows photography and recording in public places.

"I don't know what else to say, I've slept there from the beginning. No one else is there except me."

The Abbotsford Police say they are watching the camp and waiting for new direction from city hall in light of the court ruling.