New York man thrown onto subway tracks in anti-gay attack
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime
A 21-year-old was hit with a hammer and then thrown onto the subway tracks in front of an oncoming train while his attacker yelled an anti-gay slur, according to New York Police.
New York Police are investigating the incident — which occurred after 1 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 22, in the Bronx — as a hate crime, CBS New York reports.
The victim was standing on the platform, when the suspect reportedly approached him and hit him in the armpit with a hammer. The suspect then pushed the man onto the subway tracks in front of an approaching train, while yelling a homophobic slur at him.
The man was able to pull himself back onto the platform before the train reached the station. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was treated for a wound on his eyebrow.
The suspect fled the scene after pushing the man onto the tracks.
Speaking on CBS New York, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson — who is gay — said that while homicide rates are at an all-time low, “if people feel unsafe in their community, on the subway, we need to make sure we are doing more to combat that.”
In September, the MTA announced it was hiring 500 additional transit police officers.
Last month, a man pleaded guilty to a hate crime after fracturing a woman’s spine in an anti-gay attack in a subway station in Queens.
And in 2017, a man was indicted on hate crime charges after repeatedly punching a lesbian woman until she lose consciousness on a subway train in Brooklyn.
In 2016, a transgender black man was cut and stabbed multiple times in a racially motivated hate crime after another passenger said they didn’t “want to sit next to a black person.”
Read more:
Young Americans oppose restrictions on bathroom use for transgender people
Pope Francis says politicians who rant about gay people remind him of Hitler
Trump campaign’s new advisor called gays an “abomination” and “evil”
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