DITMARS — A man attacked a Hispanic woman with an umbrella as she was leaving a supermarket in Astoria, telling her that she should be deported and to get out of the country, according police.
The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the Wednesday incident, in which the 69-year-woman told police she was exiting a grocery store at 22-15 31st St. near Ditmars Boulevard around 1:30 p.m. when a man on the street approached her and began yelling.
The man told the woman she should be deported and that she should get out of the country, then he struck her with an umbrella, causing a small cut on her pinkie finger, police said.
The assailant is described as a white man in his 60s, according to the NYPD.
The Daily News first reported on the incident. The victim, who is of Puerto Rican descent, told the paper that she's lived in the neighborhood for 26 years and did not know the man.
"He just singled me out. He noticed my Latino face and he singled me out," the woman said, according to the News.
Police say hate crimes in the city are up 55 percent so far this year, with 68 incidents reported between the start of the year and Feb. 26. One of those involved a Hispanic victim, according to NYPD data.
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