August 3, 2022
NEW YORK CITY—Hate crime charges have been dropped against the African-American male suspect accused of an unprovoked slashing attack against an Asian woman with a box cutter in Times Square, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Anthony Evans, 30, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric exam and held without bail late Tuesday night during an arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, reports Daily News.
Evans was charged with assault and attempted assault but hate crime charges have been dropped.
The Manhattan DA’s office asked for a $200,000 bail and is still considering the possibility that the attack was fueled by anti-Asian hate.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is the same Alvin Bragg who immediately charged bodega clerk Jose Alba with murder for stabbing 35-year-old African-American Austin Simon to death in self-defense back on July 1.
Those murder charges have since been dropped after the public expressed outrage.
The New York Police Department tracked down and arrested Evans on Tuesday, around 8:45 a.m. after he was identified by MTA police some 14 hours after the NYPD released a mugshot.
Evans is accused of running up and slashing the 59-year-old Asian woman as she pushed a cart on Seventh Ave. and W. 42nd St. at about 10 a.m. Sunday.
“My mother’s relieved that he was found so that no one else will be harmed,” the victim’s daughter told the Daily News after the suspect’s arrest Tuesday. “It was such a violent action, and she’s still traumatized from it.”
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital and has since been released.
Evans was actually arrested for two separate incidents in Queens. A robbery on July 22 and petty larceny on July 26, according to prosecutors. The 30-year-old also has two misdemeanor convictions.
He currently lives in a shelter in Washington Heights. Evans is due back in court on August 25.
Feature Screenshot via Freedom News TV