Police say Gornell Roman was charged Wednesday with assault and aggravated harassment, both as hate crimes.
Roman is accused of yelling an anti-gay remark and attacking a drinking companion in the East Village on Monday. Roman and the victim, Dan Contarino, lived at a nearby homeless shelter.
The attack was one of two bias reports authorities announced Tuesday following the killing of a gay man over the weekend.
Tuesday morning, two men were walking in lower Manhattan when two other men yelled homophobic slurs in Spanish and attacked them. They were arrested on hate crime assault charges.
Mark Carson was killed Saturday; a man was charged with murder as a hate crime.
