Teen arrested on hate crime charge in connection with alleged group beating of Hasidic man in Brooklyn
By Liam Reilly, CNN
A 16-year-old was arrested in an alleged group assault of a Hasidic man in Brooklyn Friday, police said.
Police did not release the name of the teen who was arrested Saturday on charges of gang assault and assault as a hate crime.
The assault is currently being treated as a hate crime and is being investigated by the department’s hate crimes task force, according to the NYPD.
A victim, 21, was allegedly approached by a group of six individuals — all unknown to him — at 58 Gerry Street, according to police.
Without exchanging words and any prior provocation, police said the group allegedly proceeded to punch and kick the young man, and then allegedly forced him to the ground before fleeing the scene.
The victim sustained minor injuries to his mouth, police said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted she is directing the State Police’s hate crime task force to help with the investigation “in any way possible.”
“I’m outraged by this act of violence against a Jewish New Yorker,” Hochul tweeted. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”
There was a $3,500 reward offered for any information on the incident, according to a post tweeted Saturday by NYPD Crime Stoppers.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is also offering a reward of up to $10,000 for anyone with any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individuals involved in the assault, according to a tweet from an ADL official.
“Nobody should be subjected to hateful violence on the streets of New York,” Scott Richman, ADL’s regional director for New York and New Jersey, said in a statement.
“We must do everything in our power to help authorities identify and apprehend those responsible, and we must also work together in order to prevent these incidents from occurring in the first place,” Richman said. “We deserve a safer and more accepting city for all New Yorkers.”
In 2021, there were 198 incidents and 58 arrests in New York City where victims of hate crimes were of Jewish background, according to the NYPD’s hate crimes task force’s dashboard. That’s up from 121 incidents and 25 arrests in 2020.
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CNN’s Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.
