Man hits woman who asked him to wear mask on bus, police said

A Riverhead man was arrested Thursday morning for hitting a woman at a bus stop following an argument about wearing a mask, Southampton Town Police said.

Ernest Ryshaun Clay, 43, struck the 46-year-old woman, who was not named, at a Riverside bus stop at the traffic circle on Peconic Avenue, police said in a statement. Officers who responded to the 9:45 a.m. 911 call found the female victim with a “laceration to the head,” police said.

“The victim had been riding a Suffolk County Transit bus when she asked the male subject to put on a protective mask while on the bus,” police said. “The two had a verbal altercation and when both got off the bus, the male punched her causing the laceration.”

The victim was treated for her head injury at the scene by medical personnel, police said.

Clay is charged with third-degree assault, police said. Responding officers detained him and booked him at Southampton police headquarters.

A court clerk with the Southampton Town Justice Court in Hampton Bays, said Clay was arraigned Thursday on the misdemeanor charge. He was released on his own recognizance and is scheduled to return to court in late August, officials said.

The clerk did not know the name of Clay’s attorney. He was represented by the Legal Aid Society during Thursday’s hearing, the clerk said.