(A7) A Colorado man was charged with a hate crime on Wednesday for allegedly drawing swastikas and racial slurs around Manhattan, including on the famous Charging Bull statue.
James Ryan, 40, is accused of defacing public spaces over two days during 2021, ABC News reported.
He faces three felony counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime and three felony counts of aggravated harassment in the first degree, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
They described how on December 13, 2021 Ryan drew a swastika and an anti-Black racial slur on one of the pillars standing at the entrance to City Hall. The day after, he spray painted the same hateful symbols near a CVS pharmacy in the Financial District and defaced the Charging Bull statue that sits near Wall Street with a “large swastika,” according to prosecutors.
