A suspect with an extensive criminal history cops now believe carried out an anti-Asian hate crime spree on the Lower East Side has been arrested for sucker-punching a stranger on a subway platform, sending the victim tumbling onto the tracks, police said Thursday.
Clive Porter, 33, stormed up to the 45-year-old victim stepping off a J train at the Bowery subway station about 4 p.m. Wednesday and punched him in the face unprovoked, cops said.
“Asian f—!” Porter screamed as he stormed off and exited the station, the victim told police.
The victim reeled back from the blow and fell off the platform onto the tracks.
He managed to get himself back onto the platform and was treated for a swollen eye at the scene. He then patrolled the area with police officers and spotted the suspect nearby on Grand and Forsyth Sts.
As cops moved in to arrest Porter there he allegedly assaulted one of the officers and spat at another, officials said.
The 6-foot-1 180-pound Porter was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychological examination. He headbutted a police officer escorting him into the hospital, leaving the cop with a concussion, officials said.
Cops charged Porter with assault as a hate crime, multiple counts of assault on a police officer, harassment and reckless endangerment.
Cops expect to additionally charge him with punching two other Asian men and an Asian woman and pick-pocketing an Asian woman within blocks of each other on Wednesday.
During at least one of the assaults, he screamed “You Asian f—-, you f—-ing Asians!” police sources said.
Porter has racked up 80 arrests over the last few years. He’s also had 12 run-ins with police where he was described as suffering from an emotional or mental illness, police said. One of those incidents was on Independence Day back in 2018, officials said.
Investigators believe his anti-Asian spree began 9:35 a.m. Wednesday when a 72-year-old man was punched without warning on Hester St. near Eldridge St. on the Lower East Side.
The victim fell to the ground face first, suffering a deep cut to his nose, cops said. Medics transported the victim to New York Downtown Hospital in stable condition.
Ten minutes later, an elderly man was punched a block away on Canal St, cops said.
Then on Eldridge St., an elderly woman was pickpocketed, cop said.
And at some point an Asian woman was struck in the head from behind near Forsyth St. and East Broadway. She fell to the ground with a minor injury.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incidents.
Two weeks earlier, on Oct. 17, cops arrested Porter for another violent spree. He was accused of brandishing a knife and threatening a 40-year-old man after being caught rooting through a garbage can at the Times Square-42nd St. subway station.
“What are you going to do about it?” Porter asked when his victim told him not to go through the trash, according to authorities.
He’s also accused of brandishing a knife and threatening a man on a No. 6 train and punching a man at the 33rd St. No. 6 subway station. All three crimes happened on Oct. 14, officials said.
He was released after his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court since none of those crimes were bail eligible, officials said.
His other prior arrests include at least two hate crimes, in which he’s accused of scrawling “Death to gays” at a train station at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn on Dec. 19, 2023, and for leaving a swastika on MTA headquarters on Broadway in 2022, officials said.
His arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on the subway station attack was pending Thursday.