BOSTON (WHDH) - A Boston man accused of committing a hate crime has been arrested on assault charges after allegedly bashing another man with a snow shovel and slashing him with a box cutter on Tuesday.

Eddie Smith, 58, is due to be arraigned in Roxbury District Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, mayhem, and committing a hate crime after he allegedly hit a 25-year-old man in the head with a snow shovel and slashed his eye with a box cutter, according to Boston police.

“Whenever he sees me he starts disrespecting me. Calling me the ‘F’ word,” the victim, who wished to be referred to only as Victor, said. “The only difference yesterday was that I said, ‘Yeah, I’m proud.”

Victor said after Smith struck him with the shovel, he took it and struck him back.

Punches were exchanged outside the Boston police headquarters and then Victor was slashed with a box cutter.

“I don’t think that he expected me to fight him back,” Victor said. “When he realized that I was fighting him back, that’s when he stopped real quick, went in his pocket and whipped it out — the box cutter.”

Officers responding to reports of an assault and battery in progress near the corner of Tremont and Prentiss streets around noon found a man bleeding from the head.

Smith allegedly fled the scene of the incident on foot but was taken into custody near the intersection of Shawmut Avenue and Dudley Square.

A cadet and dispatcher witnessed the incident and pointed responding officers in Smith’s direction.

Victor was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

He received 20 stitches above the eye and 15 below. He will have to live with the scars as a reminder of the attack for the rest of his life.

“It triggers him whenever he sees me because I live my life openly and he can’t do the same for whatever reason,” Victor said. “That like drives him nuts.”

Officers were able to recover a box cutter and a snow shovel.

Smith was released after a court appearance Wednesday and ordered not to have any contact with the victim.

58 year old Eddie Smith facing hate crime charges after he hit a gay man with a snow shovel and slashed him with a box cutter outside Boston Police HQ. The victim says “It triggers him whenever he sees me because I live my life openly”. @7News pic.twitter.com/cBrX58NeXw — Alex DiPrato (@AlexDiPrato) December 5, 2019

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