Man Slashes NYC Dad In Front Of Toddler, Yells ‘F--- Your Country’

Police authorities said on Thursday that a stranger slashed a Bronx man’s face in front of his 1-year-old son.

On Saturday, police arrested the man and identified him as 24-year-old, Joseph Key. He was arrested for slashing Ociel Herrera while he was walking home with his child on 139th street near Willis Avenue in Mott Haven, a primarily residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the Bronx borough in New York City on Feb. 1.

According to a report in the New York Post, Key was charged with “second-degree assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment, acting in a manner injurious to a child and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.”

The reports state that Key allegedly attacked the father of the 1-year-old from behind and slashed him in the face.

Authorities say the attacker did not know his target at the time of the incident and just after he slashed the man, he ran eastbound on East 129th street towards Brook Avenue shouting “F--- your country!”

An NBC report said the victim hails from Mexico and only speaks Spanish.

Speaking about the incident he said: “I felt the force on my face. At first, I thought he had hit me with his hand, but it turned out to be a blade."

Herrera was treated on the scene and as per the latest reports, his son was not hurt in the confrontation. However, Herrera said his son had been having nightmares ever since they were attacked.

"I couldn't do anything more, so I ran back to grab my son. I was worried someone could kidnap my son. … Frankly, I'm scared. We're looking for psychological help for my son. At night he can't sleep, he wakes up all the time, crying. This scared him," he said.

In a fairly similar incident from December 2017, a Canadian man was arrested after he supposedly attacked a Colombian family with a baseball bat and accused them of belonging to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

St. Thomas Police responded to a call in a local mall parking lot. They received reports of a man attacking another with a bat. The man reportedly fled before the cops could arrive but the victim’s son managed to record him on video.

Police were unable to determine whether the incident was a hate crime.

The alleged victim was identified as Sergio Estepa, who told the police that the attacker approached them when he and his partner went to the mall to meet their son after school.

The assailant was identified as a man in his 30s, by the authorities, and was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and three counts of assault with a weapon.

The suspect who still remains unidentified is still in police custody.

"It's disturbing. This was an isolated and quite disturbing incident. Hopefully, it remains isolated,” said St. Thomas Sergeant Brian Carnegie.