Watch: Knife-Toting Suspect Attacks NYC Gay Bar's Pride Signs

A man with a knife attacked property belonging to a gay club in New York City, then fled the scene. Police are investigating the incident, which was caught on security video, as a hate crime.

Local ABC affiliate Eyewitness News 7 detailed that the suspect was caught on video yanking up Pride signs belonging to Greenwich Villages's Monster Bar – "just steps from the Stonewall National Monument," as the news report noted – and hurling them into the street.

The Pride Month vandalism came with an even more dangerous edge: The suspect was seen to display a knife at one point, reportedly "brandishing" the weapon "in front of a 36-year-old employee" of the establishment before fleeing the scene on foot.

Monster bartender David Coss spoke with the news channel and said that the early-morning June 16 attack on the bar's property wasn't the first such incident.

"We've had that happen like a whole bunch of times," Coss said; the report indicated he was referring to incidents of vandalism targeting Pride flags at a nearby park. "And this was just like another incident," Coss added, "but it could have been so much worse."

Two years ago, a gang of three men "allegedly damaged multiple rainbow Pride flags on display at New York City's Stonewall National Monument" during Pride month, drawing condemnation and vows of support from out NYC council member Erik Bottcher, NBC News reported at the time.

In 2024, the New York Daily News reported on "a bigot" attacking Pride flags in a rampage that destroyed more than a dozen flags at Christopher Park, which is part of the monument.

Just this year, new directives from the Park Service resulted in trans flags not being included in the park's annual display, as the current administration continues its program of trans erasure. New Yorkers supplied trans flags on their own in response.

"But make no mistake," Eyewitness News correspondent Anthony Carlo said in the report. "The people out celebrating this weekend's Pride festivities, they are not letting incidents like that put a damper on their weekend. In fact, they tell me they've gotten quite used to smiling through all the hate."

"Coss says that the current political climate has not made things any easier," the report added, citing the Navy's stripping of queer rights activist Harvey Milk's name from a vessel – a move that was, with nothing in the way of subtlety, timed for Pride Month.

Watch the ABC 7 news clip below.