A New York City woman is facing multiple charges after allegedly stabbing a transgender man who offered her a seat on a Harlem subway train Christmas night, the New York Daily News reports.
According to PIX11, Stephanie Pazmino, 30, allegedly told her cousin in Spanish, "I don't want to sit next to a black person" before the attack.
Pazmino then allegedly stabbed the man in his left arm and slashed him in the face with a 2-inch knife on the No. 4 train. Pazmino is charged with assault as a hate crime, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
Pazmino was reportedly arguing with the victim after he offered her his seat before she turned him down and then sat next to her cousin. That was when she allegedly made the racially charged declaration.
“I got up anyway and said to her that she didn’t have to sit next to me,” the victim, identified by the Daily News as 44-year-old Ijan DaVonte Jarrett, said. “I took a seat across from her and just forgot all about it.”
According to the Daily News, when Pazmino got up to leave the train, she started punching Jarrett. He did not realize that he had been stabbed until another person ran in to help.
“I ran to the ticket booth to ask the attendant to call the police; she stated that she did and that I should sit down. And I passed out after that,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Read more at the New York Daily News and PIX11.