In case you didn’t hear, there was yet another hate crime attack on Sunday, this time taking place at a subway station in the Tribeca district of New York City. A 25-year-old gay man was abruptly attacked by two men hurling homophobic slurs, leaving him with a laceration to the head requiring stitches. Police quickly put out the call for information leading to the arrest of the assailants.

Barely 24 hours later the story had fallen apart. The NYPD’s investigation determined that the supposed victim was the one instigating the conflict. (NY Post)

A Manhattan straphanger who claimed to have been attacked by two men yelling gay slurs was actually the one doing the attacking, according to police.

Cops say the 25-year-old, who has not been identified, set upon the two men at the Chambers St. station in Tribeca while on an uptown A train.

They had gotten into a verbal altercation before things got physical, the young man originally alleged.

Police interviewed multiple people, however, who witnessed the incident and said the straphanger was the aggressor. Video obtained by police allegedly shows him spitting at subway riders when the suspects-turned-victims step in and try to stop him.

Was this some sort of Jussie Smollett copycat scheme? It doesn’t sound like it was anything that well thought out. The alleged victim is believed to have been drunk at the time and there was very little sign of planning. Or even thinking for that matter. You see, Smollett at least picked a location and time of night when there wouldn’t be anyone around. (Though he failed to take into account all of the security cameras in the area.)

The problem with claiming an attack took place on a subway platform in Tribeca at 7 pm on a weekend is that there tend to be a lot of people around. And almost all of them have cellphones with cameras. It turns out there was a video of the “attack” and it was turned over to the cops. The unnamed victim was browbeating the other two riders and spitting on them. They finally moved to subdue him, which is when he got the cut to the head.

Oddly enough, the police are saying there will be no charges filed in the case. Didn’t this guy cause an investigation to be undertaken on false pretenses? Didn’t he file a false police report? Maybe the other guys just didn’t feel like pressing charges after they were vindicated, but it still seems like something the cops would consider.

This one isn’t going to draw as much national attention as Smollett did, but that’s because nobody famous was involved. Some drunk going bonkers and spitting on people at this particular location is also known as a day ending in a Y in the Big Apple.