FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The man accused of harassing an Asian man about the coronavirus last week in Forest Hills was arrested and charged with a hate crime, police said Saturday.

The NYPD charged Raul Ramos, 44, with aggravated harassment as a hate crime for the anti-Asian attack early Thursday on a man bringing his 10-year-old son to school. Ramos, a Forest Hills resident, has no prior arrests, a police spokesperson told Patch.



In an interview with Patch, the victim — who asked to be identified only by his first name, Jeff, to protect his family — said he was walking his son to a school bus stop in Forest Hills when the man shouted, "Where's your f---ing mask, you Chinese b---h?" and tried to hit him in the head. To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in NYC, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter.



Jeff and his son kept walking, but the man chased after them, he recalled.

"I tried not to do anything like yelling back at him because my son was there," he told Patch in a phone interview last week.

Initially, he didn't file a police report because he wasn't sure police would be helpful, he told Patch on Thursday. He later reported the incident to police, he said after Patch first reported on the incident.