Man charged with bias crime in attack of Somali-speaking person on bus

Prosecutors charged a homeless man with a bias crime for an attack on a man who was speaking Somali while riding a Metro Transit bus.

Cornell White, 56, was charged Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court.

According to the criminal complaint, he walked up to a man on a bus who was talking with his friend.

White allegedly told the man to speak English and used racial epithets and sexual slurs. He then punched the man several times in the face and body, according to the criminal complaint — which also says the beating was caught on video from the bus.

The Metro Transit driver pulled over at Lake Street East and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, where police boarded and interviewed the victim and White, who admitted he'd been in the fight.

White faces one count of fourth-degree assault motivated by bias and one count of fifth-degree drug possession for allegedly having a bag of methamphetamine on him when he was arrested.