Shairo Gil, 24, missed when he tried to stab the clerk at Barrales Grocery on Main Street in the chest, they said.
Gil “was purposely targeting any individual of Mexican descent” and went after ther clerk “because he believed her to be of Mexican descent,” Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Clifton Police Chief Thomas Rinaldi said in a joint release.
The intended victim was unharmed, they said.
Gil also was charged with aggravated assault, bias intimidation and weapons offenses.
He was sent to the Passaic County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson.
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