A town of Newburgh man faces a menacing charge after authorities say he unleashed a racist attack on a town of Wallkill police officer and his son who were driving through Newburgh last weekend.

William Ryan, 60, was charged with second-degree menacing with a weapon as a hate crime, a class E felony, Newburgh Police said Tuesday.

Ryan, who is white, pleaded not guilty and was remanded without bail. He’s due back in court on Friday. The attorney listed for Ryan did not immediately return a request for comment.

“Mr. Ryan will be held accountable for his criminal actions and deplorable speech,” Chief Anthony Geraci said in a statement. “His racist threats were not only harmful to the victim in this case, but echoes deep within our community.”

Life Restoration Church pastor and town of Wallkill Police Lt. Robert McLymore said he never expected a Saturday drive through Newburgh with his 18-year-old son would turn into such an ugly ordeal.

McLymore and his son were on their way to church when he heard a pickup truck horn blowing.

As the driver, identified later by police as Ryan, passed McLymore, he yelled racist epithets and vulgar language at the father and son, who are both Black. McLymore shared video of the racist tirade with Spectrum News 1.

“I didn’t think that it would escalate like that,” McLymore said Monday in an interview.

He said the incident started at South and Prospect streets and ended nearly a mile later on Broadway and West Street.

McLymore said Ryan got out of his pickup truck and approached his car holding a box cutter.

“He comes on the side of my driver’s side and he has a box cutter. So he puts the box cutter [near] my face, and he says, ‘I’ll cut you,’” McLymore said.

The man returned to his car and McLymore’s son jumped out to confront Ryan before McLymore held him back. Both men drove off, but the altercation didn’t end there.

McLymore turned into a Chinese restaurant parking lot, where he recorded more of the man’s racist tirade. The man then identified himself as a trooper, McLymore said.

“I was just like, that’s not how troopers act. That’s not how law enforcement acts,” McLymore said.

According to Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s office, a preliminary review found the man is not a law enforcement officer.

“I see him coming to the passenger side," McLymore said, "and he says, "I’ll stab you.'"

Spectrum News 1 obtained a second video from the altercation that shows the man later identified as Ryan lunging at McLymore and his son with what McLymore said was a knife, and yelling racial slurs at them.

“What really got to me is when he had the knife and he reached over and my son was right there,” McLymore said.

He tried to signal to a nearby city of Newburgh police officer, but the man drove off. McLymore later filed a police report.

“I never experienced anything like this, 45 years and this is my home city,” said McLymore, who added he continues to replay the moment in his mind.

“You could tell that it was his intentions were to try to hurt us,” he said. “He knew what he was saying, so there’s no excuse for his words or his behavior.”

Maloney, Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey and the Mid-Hudson Regional NAACP released a joint statement on Monday denouncing the racism, saying, in part, “racism has no place in our communities… We can and must do more to combat racism and support Black and Brown communities in the Hudson Valley.”

“My first reaction was like, I was really shocked that it’s 2022 and to hear someone speaking in that tone and with that vulgarity,” Harvey said. “And then, just a hurt feeling, like, America’s better than that.”

McLymore said, “He’s got to pay the consequences for his action, but honestly, I forgive him.”