Man caught on video harassing woman for her Puerto Rican pride shirt is convicted of a hate crime

A man who was captured on video harassing a woman for wearing a Puerto Rican pride shirt has been convicted of a hate crime, the Chicago Tribune reports.

On Wednesday, a jury found 63-year-old Timothy Trybus guilty over the incident which took place last year. The video shows Trybus confronting Mia Irizarry, 24, at the Caldwell Woods forest preserve in Chicago on June 14, 2018. After seeing the Puerto Rican flag shirt she was wearing, Trybus asked if she is a U.S. citizen and said, “You’re not going to change us, you know that?” and, “The world is not going to change the United States of America.”

The video, which was shared widely across social media, sparked widespread outrage and even resulted in Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, publicly calling it “appalling,” adding that “a Puerto Rican woman was brutally harassed by a bigot while an officer did not interfere.”

Patrick Connor, a Forest Preserves of Cook County police officer who was on the scene when the incident took place, resigned after being heavily criticized for failing to intervene and stop Trybus.

Trybus faces up to five years in prison, but probation is also an option, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Watch a report on the story from NBC News below:

Featured image: screen grab/Cook County Jail

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.