Photo: Ossining County Police Department
A white man has pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a 17-year-old Black girl.
Robert McCallion admitted to stabbing a Black teen whose name has not been publicly released at a Westchester County apartment complex where he lived. According to reports, McCallion lived at the apartments where the unnamed girl was visiting her family on March 13, 2020.
Police arrived at the apartments to find the victim bleeding from stab wounds in her face and back. Officers arrested McCallion, 36, in the parking lot of the apartment complex after they found him with blood on his hands and clothes. The knife used in the attack was also recovered at the scene, NBC News reported. Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said McCallion yelled racial slurs while stabbing the girl who was a complete stranger to him.
"This was a brutal, despicable and cowardly attack by Robert McCallion on an innocent young woman because of the color of her skin." McCallion is facing over a dozen felony charges for the attack, including attempted murder and attempted murder as a hate crime.
"Hate crimes such as this not only traumatize the victim, but the community as well, and will be prosecuted aggressively but this office," Rocah vowed.
McCallion's violence didn't stop there. While in custody at the Westchester County Jail, the stabbing suspect attacked a nurse and faces charges for causing "physical injury to a [registered] nurse," court documents state.
Law enforcement searched McCallion's apartment that he shared with his father and discovered several high-power weapons including a loaded rifle and handgun.
McCallion is due in court to receive his sentence on November 16 and could face between eight to a 25 years in prison.
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The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
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The Association of Black Psychologists 1-301-449-3082
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America 1-240-485-1001
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