A landlord in Brooklyn allegedly stormed into one of his tenant’s apartments and proceeded to beat her with a cane in front of her kids, all after saying “you do not belong here, n****r,” the New York Daily News reports.

Rocco Simonetti and his father, Eugene Simonetti, the landlord, allegedly went to the tenant’s apartment because paint from the apartment was leaking through to the floor beneath it. When no one responded to knocks at the door, the pair proceeded to remove the door’s hinges while the tenant was sound asleep. Her three children, who are between the ages of 7 and 13 years old, woke their mother while this was happening.

Prosecutors say the landlord made his “you do not belong here” comment before proceeding to beat the tenant with a cane. The landlord’s son was simultaneously punching her, according to the local report.

Veronica Cochran, the woman identified as the tenant, allegedly struck back at the landlord by grabbing the cane and hitting him back, said a lawyer who is defending the landlord’s son.

“She disarmed the 87-year-old landlord of his cane and started beating on him,” Nicole Mull, Simonetti’s lawyer, said.

Hearing this, the Assistant District Attorney Wilfredo Cotto said: “If he beat me with a cane, I would try to take it from him and hit him with it.”

The landlord’s son, through his lawyer, denied hitting the tenant and said he mainly tried to pull Cochran off his father. He also claims that he and his father went to Cochran’s apartment because paint was leaking down to a lower floor and that they knocked on the door and received no answer.

The incident, in total, was recounted in Brooklyn Criminal Court, the New York Daily News reported. The landlord’s son has been arraigned for his role in the alleged attack. He was given nearly 20 charges, including burglary, assault and child endangerment. He was released without bail and was ordered by the judge to steer clear of the building where the tenant and his father both reside.

The father, however, has not been charged yet because of a health situation.

The local report said the landlord possibly had a stroke after the encounter with the tenant and had to be hospitalized. 

Brooklyn landlords aren't averse to reputations of being racist and problematic. In March, a landlord in the borough wanted to install facial recognition technology at his apartment buildings in predominantly Black neighborhoods, as Blavity previously reported. 

In July, The Gothamist reported another Brooklyn landlord refused to rent out his apartments to Black tenants altogether, claiming that it was a “Jewish building.”

In large cities like Chicago, renters face a disproportionate amount of racism in comparison to white tenants, the Chicago Tribune reports. The newspaper cited several instances where Black tenants dealt with landlords who ignored their requests to fix issues with their buildings.