2 teens charged with hate crimes for alleged assault of woman, ‘anti-white’ comments

A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old girl in New York have been charged with assault and harassment as a hate crime after a woman was attacked on a bus earlier this month.

Two teenage girls from New York have been arrested and charged with hate crimes for allegedly assaulting a 57-year-old woman while making “anti-white” statements.

The 15-year-old and 16-year-old girls were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the July 9 alleged incident, which took place aboard a New York City bus in Queens. The girls were not named by police as they are minors.

The dispute began around 6:50 p.m. when the Q53 bus was in the area of Jamaica Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Three teens approached the 57-year-old woman, identified by the New York Post as Jill LeCroix, a grandmother of five, and got into a verbal argument.

The girls hit LeCroix with an unknown object, causing a laceration and bleeding, and fled the scene.

According to CBS New York, investigators say one of the girls yelled, “I hate white people. I hate the way they talk.”

LeCroix told the New York Post that the girls asked if she was a Trump supporter.

“Before they hit me, the girl with the green hair said, ‘You probably like Trump! Don’t you?’ LeCroix recounted. “I said, ‘I love him.’”

LeCroix was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre, where she required three staples to her head, according to police.