A Manhattan district attorney’s office said that it has launched a hate crime inquiry after an encounter in which the owner of a clothes business in New York City was reportedly attacked because she had a poster of Vice President Harris in her window.
The District Attorney’s Office attested to a publishing house that the case is still being investigated by its “Hate Crimes Unit.”
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According to a district attorney representative, until Juan Bernal is arraigned on September 25, the office is unable to provide any information on the suspect’s charges.
According to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Bernal, the 76-year-old suspect, was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with third-degree assault.
When ABC News contacted Bernal, he refuted the business owner’s assertion and stated he was looking for legal representation.
On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Tanya Young Williams is the proprietor of Tanya’s Luxury Fashion Boutique.
She said that on August 30, as she was standing at her store’s entryway, the incident occurred outside her establishment. A man passed by and then returned upon seeing the Harris products and poster.
“He said, ‘You should have this in your window,’” referring to his previous President Trump clothing, Williams told ABC News that Bernal had done so. “I moved toward him to keep him sort of out of the store and said, ‘I’m supporting Kamala.’”
Bernal repeatedly spit at Williams, Williams told the newspaper. She claimed to have reached out, seized him by the shoulders, and instructed onlookers to phone the police.
The back of her head struck the door after she said he shoved her, injuring her. Bernal’s clothing had a button attached with the words “RIP off,” according to Williams. “We stand with Israel.”
According to the NYPD, the woman was shoved and her head struck after the “individual spit on her face.”
Williams alleged Bernal hurled racist obscenities at her, but a report by NYPD did not address the racial element. She stated, according to ABC News, that she didn’t know why the police report omitted such information.
Williams is the former spouse of NBA star Jayson Williams, who entered a guilty plea for inadvertently shooting a limo driver in 2002. Since the purported incident, she claimed to have received support.
After learning of the accusations, Bernal informed the site he went to the police on Saturday. He claimed that while they were “trying to get out of this situation,” police enforcement appreciated his presence.
