Man charged in a hate crime — the second such incident in a week in Fullerton

A 53-year-old man has been charged with a racially motivated, knife-wielding attack in Fullerton, a week after another alleged hate crime in the city, records showed Tuesday.

Bobby Willis Palm, who is white, was accused of trying to attack a black man with a knife, according to court records.

The attack occurred just before noon Sunday while the victim was “sitting on a bus bench when approached by the defendant, who made threatening statements regarding the victim’s ethnicity and country of origin,” said Michelle Van Der Linden of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The victim ran into a nearby business and called police, she added.

Van Der Linden declined to provide further details.

Palm was charged with single counts each of committing a civil rights violation with violent injury, assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats, all felonies. He also faces sentencing enhancements for hate crimes.

Palm pleaded not guilty Tuesday and was ordered to return to court for a pretrial hearing Oct. 3.

Fullerton police responded to another alleged hate crime on Sept. 17 at the Fullerton bus station at 120 E. Santa Fe Ave. when a pregnant black woman was threatened by a white man who is accused of taking her backpack, according to prosecutors.

In that case, transient Tyson Theodore Mayfield, 42, was charged last week with one count each of criminal threats, a civil rights violation, both felonies; as well as one misdemeanor count of petty theft. He also faces a sentencing enhancement for a hate crime with a prior conviction.