Hate Crimes 2016: NYC Woman Stabs Black Transgender Man On Subway Christmas Night

A New York City woman punched and stabbed a transgender black man on Christmas after he offered her his seat on the subway. She refused adamantly, exclaiming, “I don’t want to sit next to black people,” before stabbing him.

The incident occurred around 11:05 p.m. Sunday when the victim, 44-year-old DaVonte Jarrett, told 30-year-old Stephanie Pazmino that she could have his subway seat as the two were riding the train through the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem.

Pazmino declined the offer and told her cousin in Spanish that she didn’t care to sit next to a black person, Raw Story reported Monday.

Jarrett, who was on his way home from his job as a hair stylist in Bayonne, New Jersey, got up from his seat anyways after telling Pazmino she didn’t have to sit next to him if she didn’t want to. He then took a seat across from her, trying to forget about the incident. But when he got up to leave the train, she began punching him, Jarrett told the New York Daily News. He didn’t even realize Pazmino had also stabbed him until another passenger stepped in to help. Pazmino had stabbed him in the arm with a two-inch knife while also slicing his face.

“I ran to the ticket booth to ask the attendant to call the police, she stated that she did, and that I should sit down. And I passed out after that,” Jarrett said.

Law enforcement authorities rushed Jarrett to a local hospital. He said he wasn’t aware if Pazmino also went after him because he was transgender.

Police apprehended the assailant close to where the crime had occurred and charged her with a hate crime, reckless endangerment and weapons possession.

Sunday's incident was not the first hate crime charge in New York City this month. A public transit worker and an off-duty police officer were both the victims of hate crimes because they were Muslim.

A 45-year-old Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) employee originally from Egypt, Sosa Salama, was told, “You are a terrorist and you shouldn’t be working for the city” before being pushed down a flight of stairs at Grand Central Station on Dec. 5. A week later, a man called off-duty NYPD Officer Aml Elsokary, who was wearing a hijab, an “ISIS b***h.” The man also threatened to slit her throat.

There have been 701 incidents of hateful incidents of harassment reported across the country, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported last month.