Hispanic man struck with pipe in hate crime attack: NYPD

A 51-year-old man was struck in the head with a pipe during an anti-Hispanic attack in Queens, police said Tuesday, announcing they were investigating the incident as a hate crime.

The victim was on Roosevelt Ave. near 80th St. in Jackson Heights about 10:45 p.m. on Sunday when the unidentified suspect stormed up to him wielding a pipe, cops said.

“I hate all Spanish!” the stranger said. “I’m going to rob you! I’m going to kill you!”

The raging suspect bashed the victim over the head with the pipe before running off with his wallet and $10.

EMS took the victim to Elmhurst Hospital, where he is expected to survive.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force was working the case. No arrests have been made.

The number of hate crimes against Hispanics has nearly tripled this year, according to NYPD statistics. As of Sunday, cops were investigating eight hate crimes against Hispanics. On that date last year, cops were investigating only three such crimes, police said.

Supporters of racial justice are rallying behind the pipe victim, demanding that the NYPD “prioritize capturing the alleged assailant.”

“The depravity displayed by the racist who allegedly attacked the victim is appalling,” said Afaf Nasher, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations. “This man was insulted, beaten with a pipe, then robbed apparently because of his ethnicity.”

The attacker, Nasher said, “could pose a grave danger to the people of our great city.”