On Wednesday, A Bronx man was arraigned on an indictment charging him with assault and menacing as hate crimes and related offenses in connection with an unprovoked attack against a gay man beginning aboard an L train in the Lorimer Street subway station in Brooklyn.
According to the investigation, on Jan. 18 at approximately 5 a.m. on a northbound L train at the Lorimer Street subway station in Williamsburg, Yeshayahuw Carraway, 41, of the Bronx, allegedly approached the 24-year-old victim and stated, “What are you looking at f—ing f—-? You’re a sissy.”
The defendant then allegedly followed the victim off the train and upstairs to the mezzanine, where he displayed a knife and struck the victim multiple times about the face and body with a closed fist. The victim suffered minor injuries to his finger and pain throughout his face and body.
The defendant allegedly fled the station after the attack and was arrested following an investigation.
Carraway was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on a five-count indictment in which he is charged with third-degree assault as a hate crime, third-degree assault, third-degree menacing as a hate crime, third-degree menacing and second-degree aggravated harassment.
He was released without bail and ordered to return to court on Aug. 12.
“Every New Yorker deserves to ride the subway without being threatened or attacked because of who they are or who someone perceives them to be,” Brooklyn District Attorney Gonzalez said. “We will seek accountability for this alleged hate crime and will always stand with Brooklyn’s LGBTQ+ community against violence, intimidation and hate.”
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Sharmalee Brooks-Gordon of the District Attorney’s Hate Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kelli M. Muse, chief of the Hate Crimes Bureau.