A Brooklyn man has been charged with a hate crime after he allegedly hurled racial slurs at a black man sitting with two white women, and then stabbed him with a fork. Nicholas Melo, 34, allegedly attacked Akbar Salahuddin, 49, around 2:45 a.m. in the Bridgeview Diner in Bay Ridge last November. Melo allegedly called Salahuddin's two female companions “n----- loving b-----s” before he attacked them.

According to the criminal complaint, Melo then allegedly punched Salahuddin while calling him the n-word, and stabbed him in the head and back with a fork. Melo wasn't caught by police until this past April, when he was pulled over for talking on a cell phone, making an illegal u-turn, and driving with a suspended license. At the time of his arrest, he tried to escape cops by telling them, “I have to go, I have a job interview that my mother set up."

Melo's lawyer Mario Romano told the News the incident was provoked by one of the women tossing a bottle at him. Melo has been charged with assault in the second degree as a hate crime; he faces up to 15 years in prison.