Hate charges are dropped in Times Sq. slash

Hate crime charges have been dropped against the suspect accused of an unprovoked caught-on-camera slashing of an Asian woman with a box cutter in Times Square, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Anthony Evans was ordered to undergo a psychiatric exam and held without bail late Tuesday night during an arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Prosecutors charged Evans, 30, with assault and attempted assault but dropped the hate crime charges initially filed by police, court records show.

The Manhattan DA’s office asked for a $200,000 bail and is still investigating the possibility that the attack was fueled by anti-Asian sentiment, the assistant district attorney handling the case said during the arraignment.

Cops tracked down and arrested Evans about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday after he was identified by MTA police some 14 hours after the NYPD released a mugshot of the wanted assailant.

Evans is accused of running up and slashing the 59-year-old victim as the stranger pushed a cart on Seventh Ave. and W. 42nd St. about 10 a.m. Sunday.

Surveillance footage shows the attacker raised his right hand over his head and slashed his victim with a box cutter — never uttering a word before running off east on W. 42nd St.

“My mother’s relieved that he was found so that no one else will be harmed,” the victim’s daughter told the Daily News after the suspect’s arrest Tuesday. “It was such a violent action, and she’s still traumatized from it.”

The victim suffered a deep painful cut on her right hand that needed 16 stitches to close and a less serious wound on her right forearm. She was treated at Bellevue Hospital.

The injured woman has said she suspects she was targeted for being Asian.

Evans was quickly identified from the surveillance images, prosecutors said.

A week before the Times Square attack, Evans was arrested for two separate incidents in Queens: a robbery on July 22 and and a petty larceny on July 26, prosecutors said. He also has two misdemeanor convictions, according to court records.

Evans lives in a shelter in Washington Heights, according to cops. He’s due back in court Aug. 25.