Suspect Arrested On Hate Crime Charges In Connection With Chelsea Slashing, Police Say

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 26-year-old Brooklyn man faces hate crime charges in connection with a slashing attack inside a Chelsea grocery store last month.

Jerry Bercy was arrested Friday for assault as a hate crime, menacing as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon and other charges, police said.

It happened around 6 a.m. back on Sept. 23 inside Empire Grocery & Deli on West 25th Street and Ninth Avenue.

Police said the victim was walking down the street with his girlfriend when a man sitting on a stoop made some kind of anti-white comment. A fight started on the street and when the victim ran into the store, the suspect followed, police said.

The incident was captured on the store's surveillance cameras. A clerk named Sammy, who witnessed the attack, described at the time what he saw.

"They started from outside, they got inside the store. The black guy with the knife tried to swing at him and tried to slice his face," Sammy told 1010 WINS' John Montone. "He's swinging more than one time and I think he hit him in his hand."

Police said the victim, a 40-year-old man, suffered a cut to his wrist.