A 22-year-old Maple Valley Latino man allegedly said the n-word and other racist slurs to a Black woman while sitting behind her on a King County Metro bus in Kent.
He also reportedly told the 43-year-old woman, “I hate Black people,” and made remarks about Rosa Parks and how the woman should sit in the back of the bus, according to court documents about the March 7 incident. He then allegedly forced the woman off the bus, punched her repeatedly in the face and stomach and attempted to stab her numerous times.
King County prosecutors charged Adan C Hernandez-Mayoral with hate crime and second-degree assault, according to King County Superior Court documents filed March 12. He is scheduled to be arraigned March 25 in the GA Courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Prosecutors requested a judge to set bail at $250,000, which was granted. Hernandez-Mayoral, as of March 12, remained in the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle.
After enduring about 10 minutes of the reportedly racially degrading comments, the woman walked towards the front of the bus to call for help and get off the bus, according to charging papers. Once off the bus, at about 7:45 p.m. in the 800 block of Central Avenue South, Hernandez-Mayoral allegedly punched the woman and tried to stab her.
The woman was not physically injured due to the thickness of her coat, which had numerous tears where Hernandez-Mayoral reportedly tried repeated attempts at stabbing her, according to court documents.
“The entire incident was completely unprovoked,” wrote Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Yessenia Manzo in charging papers. “Given the biased nature of the incident, the unprovoked assault of a stranger and the escalation to the use of a deadly weapon, and the defendant’s criminal history, the state has significant community safety concerns.”
Hernandez-Mayoral has convictions of second-degree robbery in 2020, third-degree assault domestic violence in 2019 and felony harassment domestic violence in 2019.
Although Hernandez-Mayoral fled on foot after the woman called 911, Kent Police officers found him a short time later hiding underneath a vehicle at a house near the incident.
Officers used video and audio from bus surveillance cameras that reportedly confirmed the woman’s story. A witness also told police that he heard a man make racial slurs toward the woman.
Hernandez-Mayoral had a friend with him on the bus. That man allegedly tried to interfere with officers who were attempting to search Hernandez-Mayoral. After the man failed to comply with commands to move away, officers arrested the man for investigation of obstructing.
Hernandez-Mayoral did not have a knife on him at the time of his arrest and police did not locate a knife during a search of the area, according to court documents.
Hate crime stats
There were 18 anti-race/ethnicity cases in 2023 in King County, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Eight of those cases were anti-Black, five anti-Asian, two anti-Latino, two anti-white and one anti-Native.
The county had 20 similar incidents in 2022; 31 in 2021; 41 in 2020; 24 in 2019; and 17 in 2018.
Eighty-eight of the 150 incidents (59%) over the last six years were anti-Black followed by 24 anti-Asian cases (16%), 19 anti-Latino (13%), 12 anti-white (8%), one anti-Native and 10 anti-other (7%).
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