A Brooklyn man was arrested on Wednesday for assaulting Asian people in two separate attacks in New York, police said.
27-year-old Joseph Russo was charged with hate crimes for both incidents – according to the NYPD, he was said to have knocked an elderly man to the ground last month and assaulted a 32-year-old woman last month.
In the most recent incident, Russo is accused of randomly pushing a 77-year-old man while looking at vegetables for sale at the J&R NY Supermarket in Sheepshead Bay.
CCTV footage showed the maniac snatching a bouquet of flowers from an outdoor store display and throwing it across the sidewalk before spotting his victim.
Two weeks earlier, on March 22, the spiteful creep ripped the hair of a woman walking on Kings Highway in Homecrest – in another unprovoked daytime attack.
A video released by police reportedly showed Russo shamelessly dragging his victim by the hair before releasing it.
He then hit a wall with his hand and walked away.
The victims refused medical assistance in both attacks. The woman had head and neck pain and the man had bruises on his left arm.
Russo is accused of assault as a hate crime and harassment as a hate crime in each of the incidents, police said.