Subway Shover Wearing MAGA Hat Charged With Hate Crime

UNION SQUARE, NY — The attacker who shoved a Latino man onto the subway tracks last week while yelling racist slurs and wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat was arrested on Thursday, police said.

Willie Ames, 47, was charged with multiple crimes including attempted assault in the first degree as a hate crime, prosecutors said.

charged with aggravated harassment along with three counts of harassment, according to the NYPD.

Ames is believed to have attacked a fellow commuter on Friday, April 20 at about 8:15 p.m., when both men were on a northbound 4 train. Police say Ames and a 24-year-old man began arguing while on the train, during which Ames began yelling racist slurs about the man’s ethnicity.

"You guys come here to take our jobs and you bring drugs," Ames yelled at the man, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. He also called the man a "f------ Mexican" and said "you people are dirty, you people are nasty," the complaint said.

Ames then pulled t he man off the train at the Union Square station and began attacking him, punching him in the head multiple times before pushing him onto the track bed, according to the NYPD. Ames ran from the 4 train platform to the L train platform in the station.

The man was helped up from the train tracks by a friend and another person, according to police. The cuts on the man's head had to be closed shut with staples, authorities said.

Surveillance footage from the subway station shows Ames’ wearing the red “Make America Great Again” hat associated with President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Ames’ listed address is at a homeless shelter in East Williamsburg, according to police records. Patch was not immediately able to contact a defense attorney for Ames on Friday morning.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPD