A man walking near a Key Food in Astoria attacked a Hispanic woman with an umbrella, telling her to “get the f–k out of my country.”
According to the Daily News, the woman was walking along 31st Street and Ditmars Boulevard on March 1 around 1:30 p.m. when the man approached her and said “Get the f–k out of my country! You should be deported! I should shoot you!”
The man then swung his umbrella at her, cutting her finger. The woman, who has lived in Astoria for more than 26 years, told the Daily News that she had to beat him back with her own umbrella because he would not stop hitting her.
“He just came right at my face, he tells me, ‘You need to be deported. I’m going to smash your face, I’m going to shoot you,’” the woman told the Daily News. “I kept telling him, ‘No, you leave. I belong here. I’m third-generation.’”
She said she blocked him with her left hand, and that’s when she suffered a cut. A crowd gathered around them and the man walked away, she added.
According to the victim, the man “looked like a normal person.” She said he was a white man about 6 feet tall, with a clean-shaven face, brown hair and brown eyes.
“They figure, as long as you’ve got a Latino face we’re all illegal,” she added.
The NYPD is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
“This despicable attack has no place in our city – or anywhere,” a joint statement by Congressman Joe Crowley, Senator Michael Gianaris, Assemblymember Aravella Simotas and Councilman Costa Constantinides said. “Now more than ever, we must stand united for tolerance and respect. All New Yorkers, including our immigrant communities, deserve the opportunity to walk our streets safely and without being viciously harassed or assaulted because of the way they look. We thank the NYPD for their thorough investigation of this heinous act.”
