Road Rage Incident Leads To Hate Crime Charge For HV Man: PD

NEWBURGH, NY — A 60-year-old town of Newburgh man was arrested Tuesday after being accused of menacing an African American city of Newburgh resident with a knife while using a racial slur.

The City of Newburgh Police Department said William J. Ryan, 60, of Newburgh, was charged with second-degree menacing as a hate crime, a felony.

Robert Mclymore, a police lieutenant and pastor in Wallkill, said he was driving and slowed to let someone pass him Saturday, ABC News reported.

Ryan, who is white, began shouting slurs at Mclymore and his son, who was also in the car, waved a box cutter at them and tried to rear-end them, Mclymore told ABC News.

Mclymore said Ryan falsely claimed to be a state trooper, News 12 reported.

Newburgh City Police Chief Anthony Geraci said, in a statement, that Ryan will be held accountable for his criminal actions and deplorable speech.

"His racist threats were not only harmful to the victim in this case," he said, "but echoes deep within our city.

"There is no place for hate in our community," Geraci said.