Ex-con busted in NYC attack days after being cut free on felony assault charge
By: By Craig McCarthy
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
An ex-con with more than 40 prior arrests was recently busted for a hate crime attack on the subway — just days after being cut loose in a felony assault case, according to police sources and court records.
Raymond Bennett, 46, was arrested Thursday after allegedly hitting an Asian woman from behind with the handlebars of his bike inside the 116th Street-Columbia University station in Morningside Heights on Saturday, police said.
Bennett allegedly hurled racist epithets at the 54-year-old victim in the 4 p.m. incident, which happened on the platform of the No. 1 train, cops said.
“I got you good, you Asian f–king b—h,” Bennett allegedly snarled when the woman asked why he hit her before fleeing the station, according to a criminal complaint.
Bennett was free to attack after getting sprung on supervised release in an earlier case from Nov. 20 — in which he also allegedly rammed his bike into a woman, cops said.
In that incident, he allegedly whacked the 37-year-old victim with a Citi Bike repeatedly on the shoulder and arm at the 96th Street subway station when they got into an argument over how many people could fit in an elevator, according to cops.
The victim was treated at St. Luke’s Hospital, police said.
Bennett was charged with felony assault — and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office requested $20,000 bail or $60,000 bond. But Judge James Clynes freed Bennett on the highest level of supervision, one in-person check-in per week, according to the DA’s office.
The bike bully was nabbed in his latest alleged attack after an Amtrak employee recognized him from photos put out by police — who had identified him using facial recognition software, sources said.
It was unclear where exactly Bennett was arrested.
He was charged with assault as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the Saturday incident, police said.
He was jailed Friday after Judge Robert Rosenthal set bail at $15,000, according to the Manhattan DA’s Office.
Bennett has dozens of arrests dating back to the early 1990s for various crimes, including assaults and robberies, sources said.
He served three stints in prison, prison records show. His latest was a three-year sentence in 2017 for grand larceny that was cut down to one year by the parole board, records show.
Who is online
629 visitors