Man Charged After Tirade At Ridgewood NJ Transit Stop

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Cell phone video posted to YouTube shows one man directing racial and homophobic slurs at an NJ Transit conductor in Ridgewood. Jail records show that the man has been charged with aggravated assault.

NJ Transit confirmed that Thomas Vitulano, 30, of Weehawken, is the "suspect" in the video, but jail records show he has been arrested and faces four charges, including aggravated assault.

Reports say that Vitulano spit at the conductor after a spat on the Hoboken bound train. He was later detained by Ridgewood police, before being turned over to NJ Transit police.

NJ Transit released this statement on Wednesday:

NJ TRANSIT is extremely disturbed by the reprehensible display of racially-charged hate speech directed at one of our train crew members in this video. This type of behavior will not be tolerated under any circumstances on the NJ TRANSIT system, and this individual should be banned from riding the system. At NJ TRANSIT, nothing is more important than the safety and security of our employees and customers, and we have a zero-tolerance policy with regard to any form of discrimination or harassment. We want the public to know that incidents of this nature, including all allegations of our employees being assaulted, are taken very seriously. Individuals who contemplate doing harm to our employees will be apprehended and aggressively prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

According to NJ Transit, assaulting any conductors or bus operators carries a prison term of up to five years and fines up to $15,000.

The incident caused delays on the Main-Bergen County Line, according to the NJ Transit Twitter account.

Video of the altercation has been posted to YouTube, and can be seen below. A warning, the video contains offensive language.