The man who harassed a woman at a Chicago-area park for wearing a Puerto Rico shirt in the U.S. has been hit with two felony hate crime charges.
After the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office reviewed the video, officials approved the charges against Timothy Trybus, 62, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Trybus, who was filmed repeatedly berating a woman for wearing a Puerto Rico T-shirt despite her pleas for him to leave her alone, was originally charged with misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Those charges were upgraded to hate crime charges, according to NBC News, and he was arrested again on Thursday.
The woman in the video was setting up for a birthday party at Caldwell Woods, a local forest preserve, and said she had a permit to use the space. She repeatedly asked a nearby park police officer for his assistance, saying she was being harassed and felt uncomfortable.
The officer, Patrick Connor, did not come to the woman’s aid or defuse the situation, drawing ire on social media for his inaction. After video of the June incident was posted to Facebook on July 6 and went viral, Connor was placed on desk duty. He resigned from his post on Wednesday, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The video is one of many racist attacks filmed in recent months. A man in a New York eatery threatened to call ICE on female employees speaking Spanish. Just last week, a black man said he was told to leave the pool at his own apartment complex by an off-duty police officer working as a security guard.