37°
That's what the black owner of a beloved Bayonne bookshop had to say following the latest incident of racial bias at her shop -- The Little BOHO Bookstore on Broadway -- in which a 59-year-old Hoboken man was arrested.
The most recent incident involved a pair of harassing emails and a threatening phone call, which all came in on Friday, Bayonne Police Capt. Eric Amato said.
While detectives were at the Broadway shop investigating on Saturday morning, a man later identified as Qiuewn Zheng, 59, showed up muttering "unintelligible phrases" -- and the same words seen in the emails sent to the shop the day prior,
Zheng was charged with bias intimidation, cyber harassment and terroristic threats.
Dear took to Facebook to detail years of racial biases at her shop that evening.
A separate incident of harassment possibly involving Zheng is also under investigation, authorities said. The incident involves numerous harassing phone calls made to the Bayonne Police Telecommunication Center at all hours of the day since Oct. 18, police said.
"The Bayonne Police Department will not tolerate divisive acts such as this. Incidents of Bias Intimidation will be investigated to their logical conclusions and those responsible will be held accountable," Bayonne Police Chief Robert Geisler said.
"I would like to commend the officers assigned to the area of The Little Boho Bookshop on Saturday for taking swift action and taking this offender into custody before this incident could escalate further."
Click here to follow Daily Voice Garfield-Lodi and receive free news updates.
