Two young women were arrested Tuesday and charged with hate crimes just over three weeks after they allegedly attacked a grandmother on board a bus in Woodhaven, according to the NYPD.
The teens, ages 15 and 16, were taken into custody after a tip was phoned into the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline, according to police sources, who added that a third suspect remains at large.
The incident occurred on board a southbound Q52 MTA bus that was headed toward the Rockaways on the afternoon of Saturday, July 9. The three Black women approached the 57-year-old Jill LeCroix of Flushing and one of them allegedly said, “You probably like Trump! Don’t you?” according to the New York Post.
One of the assailants then struck the victim in her head with an unknown object while yelling that they “hate white people,” before they exited the bus near the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard, police said.
EMS transported the victim, a grandmother of five, to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in stable condition, where she received 3 staples to close a laceration to her head, police said.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force was called in to investigate the bias attack after LeCroix told detectives the three shouted anti-white statements during the assault. The two teens, who were not identified due to their ages, were charged with assault and harassment as hate crimes, police said.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force investigation continues, as does the search for the third suspect, police said.
