MIDTOWN — A Brooklyn man was arrested and charged with a hate crime for drawing swastikas and phrases including “KKK" and “Mexican Go Home” inside a Penn Station men's bathroom during a monthslong graffiti spree, authorities said.
State police officers stationed inside the restroom arrested Pasquale Vargas, 65, on Sunday for repeatedly vandalizing a stall inside the station over the course of several months, according to prpsecutors and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.
The officers — who were stationed inside the bathroom as part of a surveillance operation related to a hate-crime graffiti pattern — noticed scrawls written in black marker had appeared inside the stall after Vargas exited it on Sunday.
When they searched his backpack, they found a black Sharpie, officials said.
Vargas is believed to have written “bias graffiti” inside the men's restroom on the Long Island Railroad level of Penn Station on eight different occasions between Oct. 23, 2016, and Sunday, including swastikas and the phrases "KKK" and "Mexican Go Home," the complaint said.
In an interview with police, he said he wrote the graffiti “because Mexicans take jobs from Americans,” the governor's office said.
Vargas has been charged with eight counts of hate-crime criminal mischief, according to his criminal complaint. He is currently being held on $20,000 bail and is expected back in court on March 10, prosecutors said.
In a statement, Cuomo said the bust “sends a clear message that all hate crimes will be thoroughly investigated.
“We have zero tolerance for these acts of bigotry, which stand in direct contrast to the values that we New Yorkers represent,” he added.
An attorney for Vargas didn't immediately respond to request for comment Monday.
