FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Bronx Man Arraigned on Indictment Charging Him With
Hate Crimes for Allegedly Assaulting Woman, Spewing Anti-Hispanic Slurs
Victim Was Allegedly Punched as She Was Speaking into Her Cell Phone on Subway Platform
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Bronx man has been indicted for hate crimes after allegedly assaulting a senior citizen in an unprovoked attack in a subway station.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Bias-motivated attacks will not be tolerated in Brooklyn, which prides itself on its diversity and inclusion. This alleged attack on a Spanish-speaking senior citizen was particularly egregious because of the victim’s vulnerability and the defendant’s hateful language. We will now seek to hold him accountable for his alleged actions.”
The District Attorney identified the defendants as Lamont Dinkins, 43, of the Bronx. Dinkins was arraigned today on an indictment in which he is charged with second-degree assault, second-degree attempted assault, 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 is being held on $50,000 bail and was ordered to return to court on April 1, 2022.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on January 18, 2022, at approximately 8:50 p.m., on the R subway line platform at Willoughby Street and Lawrence Street, a 72-year-old woman was speaking into her cell phone in Spanish and English when the defendant, Lamont Dinkins, allegedly cursed at her and said: “Stop speaking in Spanish, you Spanish b—h.” The defendant then allegedly punched the victim repeatedly in the face and head. He allegedly boarded a southbound R train and was arrested at the Barclays Center, which was the next stop.
If you believe you have been a victim of a hate crime, please call the District Attorney’s Hate Crime Hotline at 718-250-4949.
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 Ari Farkas, Deputy Chief of the Hate Crimes Bureau, and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kelli M. Muse, Chief of the Hate Crimes Bureau.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.