NEW YORK (AP) - Police say a man hurled slurs and blows at two transgender women on a New York City street, sending one to a hospital in what authorities are calling a hate crime.
Court records show Patrick O’Meara was being held on $5,000 bond after being arraigned Saturday on hate-crime assault and other charges. A message left for the Legal Aid Society, shown as having represented the Oakdale man, wasn’t immediately returned.
The encounter happened Friday in the Jackson Heights neighborhood.
Police say the 38-year-old O’Meara yelled anti-gay and anti-women epithets at the victims, then punched one of them and hit the other with a cane and a plastic object.
Witness Maria Munoz told the news site DNAinfo that O’Meara was harassing other passers-by beforehand but became “infuriated” when the victims appeared.
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