New York police say the suspect in a brutal hate crime committed at a subway station in January was identified last week after he tried to evade paying a subway fare.
According to police sources, 41-year-old Yeshayahu Carraway of the Bronx was later matched with the suspect in the January 17 incident, when a rider on the L train in Brooklyn hurled homophobic slurs at a 24-year-old man, then followed him onto the platform of the Williamsburg station and attacked him, AMNY reports.
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Carraway was taken into custody last week after transit police spotted him using an emergency exit to enter the platform at a Bronx subway station.
While in custody, Carraway was identified as the same man who attacked the L train rider around 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning. The man screamed at the victim, calling him a “f***ot,” according to sources, before following him off the train and brandishing a knife. He brutally punched the man across his head and face before fleeing the scene.
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The victim suffered minor injuries but refused medical attention.
Carraway was first taken into custody on charges including theft of services and an additional count of disorderly conduct, before police made the connection to the January attack. He was later booked for assault as a hate crime, assault, menacing as a hate crime, menacing, aggravated harassment, and harassment related to the subway train attack.
Police sources said Carraway is a repeat offender. Earlier in April, he was taken into custody for criminal possession of a controlled substance. In 2013, he was charged with assault for punching and scratching a then-girlfriend in a domestic dispute.
Just a week before the January incident, a 28-year-old man was attacked on a No. 6 train as it approached the 23rd Street station in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan, Crimestoppers reported.
Around 8:00 p.m., an unidentified individual “engaged him in a verbal dispute,” then became irate and yelled anti-LGBTQ+ epithets at the man. The perpetrator then struck the victim with a sharp object, causing a laceration to the right side of his face. He remains at large.
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