A Washington state resident has pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges linked to a 2024 incident in which a Black woman using Seattle-area public transit was assaulted by a man who called her “Rosa Parks” and told her to move to the back of the bus.
Adan Hernandez-Mayoral, 24, of Auburn, Washington, entered the plea Tuesday, Dec. 23, in U.S. District Court in Seattle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Western Washington.
The incident took place on March 7, 2024, when court papers say Hernandez-Mayoral began making derogatory comments about Black people while aboard a King County Metro bus in Kent, Washington.
When a Black woman aboard the bus turned to see who was making the racist comments, Hernandez-Mayoral yelled at her to look away, the documents said.
Hernandez-Mayoral then made additional comments, including calling the woman “Rosa Parks,” evidently referencing the Alabama activist whose 1955 arrest for refusing to comply with segregation orders aboard a Montgomery bus sparked a year-long boycott that ended with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned discrimination on city buses.
