NORWICH – The trial for alleged hate crime shooter Wayne Spratley has been set for January 2018.

Spratley, 35, of Greene was charged with attempted murder in the second degree following a shooting that took place in a parking lot on Lackawanna Avenue in Norwich in July 2015.

District Attorney Joseph McBride claimed the shooting was a hate crime as it’s alleged Spratley said,“numerous racial slurs" at the victim before shooting what was said to be a Glock handgun.

Chenango County Judge Frank B. Revoir Jr. dismissed the hate crime allegations against Spratley nine months ago.

In a press conference held months ago, McBride said, “The investigation revealed that the allegations are that in the course of an altercation or argument with a gentleman in the City of Norwich on the 19th day of July 2015, that the defendant used racial slurs to taunt the victim. During the process of that, the defendant pulled out his weapon while continuing to call the victim racial slurs. As the argument spilled over into a parking lot in the City of Norwich, the defendant whose weapon was drawn and pointed at the victim, pulled the trigger and shot his weapon, shooting the victim in the lower left abdomen.”

The day of the shooting McBride said that the Norwich Police had interviewed every available lead and every available witness with regard to the shooting.

Initially, the African American male victim was in an intensive care unit where he remained in critical condition for a number of days.

Spratley was then arraigned in front of Chenango County Court Judge Frank B. Revoir Jr. that same day, and was remanded to the Chenango County Correctional Facility in lieu of $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond. He posted bail.

“My understanding is that he lawfully possessed that firearm at that time, but there is an allegation that he used that firearm that day unlawfully,” said McBride in a previous interview with The Evening Sun.

Two days following Spratley’s release from the Chenango County Correctional Facility once he posted bond, additional charges were placed against him, including the class B felony of criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, and the class B felony of assault in the first degree. No additional bail was set when Spratley was arraigned on these charges.

When Revoir dismissed the top three counts that allege the incident was a hate crime due to a number of factors.

“New York’s Hate Crimes Act became law in 2000, becoming the 44th state to pass such a law,” read the decision obtained by the County Clerk’s Office. “As the ‘Legislative findings’ attached to 485.05 of the Penal Law state, ‘Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all citizens, they inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional damage and tear away at the very fabric of free society.”