Officials are mulling hate crime charges for a Brooklyn man who admitted he slashed a woman on the street because she was white, say police reports.
According to New York Police, suspect Gregory Alfred said he slashed Janina Popko across the back of the neck because of her race. “I cut her because she was white,” he reportedly told them.
The victim received a 13-inch-long gash that took 13 stitches to close, according to the New York Daily News.
Popko, 53, told police the man who attacked her hid his face with an American flag bandana.
“He’s a very disturbed young man,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told the press.
Chief Boyce went on to say the 25-year-old suspect had dropped a bag filled with other knives. Police took fingerprints off the bag and that led to the suspect’s capture.
“He had bought paring knives and kitchen knives and said he was going to stab people,” Boyce said.
The solved crime comes on the heels of an uptick in slashing attacks in The Big Apple.
The New York Police report that year-to-date there have been nearly 500 slash attacks. That is up from the just over 400 this time last year.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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