Two teenaged African American girls were charged with hate crimes Tuesday after they allegedly assaulted a 57-year-old white woman on a bus while saying they “hate white people” earlier this month, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
The two girls, ages 15 and 16, along with another girl, started arguing with Jill LeCroix on a Queens MTA bus July 9 before allegedly bashing her in the head, the New York Daily News reported.
The victim told police she heard her alleged attackers say, “I hate white people … the way they talk” before they reportedly hit her in the head with a blunt object and ran. LeCroix was treated at a local hospital and received three staples in her head.
According to the NYPD, the two girls were arrested Tuesday after a crime watchers tip, and the third girl is still being sought.
LeCroix, a grandmother with three biracial children, told the New York Post that one of the teenage girls accused her of supporting former President Donald Trump before bashing her head. “Before they hit me, the girl with the green hair said, ‘You probably like Trump! Don’t you?’ I said, ‘I love him.’ I didn’t see which one hit me first,” she recalled.
“The one with the green hair, she was saying she hates white people, the way they talk, hates white skin, the way their skin cracks. Saying she was gangsta,” LeCroix continued, adding, “She said, ‘You’re going to get what you deserve! All white people are going to get what they deserve.’”
The Big Apple has seen a recent surge in violent crime. Just last weekend, video captured a minister in the city being robbed at gunpoint during a Sunday service, The Daily Wire previously reported. Bishop Lamor Whitehead, who oversees Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries, was preaching the morning’s sermon when multiple armed men entered the church’s facility.
Over the past year, the Democrat-run city reported a 15% increase in rape, while robberies and felony assaults rose 40% and 20%, respectively, the Post reported. New York also saw a 76% increase in hate crimes over the past year, according to CNN.