A 48-year-old man already listed as New York's highest-risk category of sex offender allegedly chased a 24-year-old Jewish yeshiva student at knifepoint through Crown Heights on Wednesday, screaming a Nazi slogan as the student fled toward his home. Police say the suspect, identified as Devin Best, approached the victim near Park Place and Brooklyn Avenue around 2:48 p.m. Wednesday, brandished a knife, and pursued him as he ran.
As reported by the New York Post, Best allegedly shouted “hail f–king Hitler” during the chase. The student escaped by running into his home, but Best reportedly followed him to the doorstep, yelling, “Go in the house! Now I know where you live, p–y! That's what I wanted. Hail f–king Hitler!” Video of the encounter was released by Crown Heights Shmira, the neighborhood's unarmed volunteer civilian safety patrol, which posted footage of the incident on September 23. Founded in 1968, Shmira patrols alongside local NYPD precincts but holds no arrest authority beyond a standard citizen's arrest, according to City Limits.
According to the Post's reporting, Best also appeared to slash the tires of a bike parked outside the victim's home and shouted a separate racial slur before he was taken into custody. He was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime and menacing, and the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office told the outlet that Best's arraignment was pending as of Thursday. Best, who is from the Bronx, had four previous arrests, including a 1997 loaded-gun possession case and a 1998 rape arrest, per law enforcement sources cited by the same account; the disposition of those earlier cases was not immediately known.
A Registered Offender With a Documented Past
Best's criminal history predates his alleged role in the Crown Heights confrontation by nearly three decades. He was sentenced in February 2000 to between 54 months and 84 months in New York State prison following a conviction for second-degree rape and aggravated sexual abuse involving a 12-year-old girl in May 1999, according to Daily Voice. That outlet also reported that New York State's Division of Criminal Justice Services issued a public safety alert in January 2019 when Best registered a residency relocation to Yonkers as a designated predicate sex offender.
Best is currently listed as a Level 3 sex offender, the highest-risk classification under New York's Sex Offender Registration Act. That designation mandates lifetime registry, a public online directory listing, and in-person address verification with local law enforcement every 90 days, according to King Law. Whether Best had recently complied with those verification requirements has not been reported.
Hate Crime Enhancement Raises Legal Stakes
Under New York Penal Law § 485.05, a hate crime is a separate offense; under § 485.10, the one-category increase applies to misdemeanors and Class C, D, or E felonies when the underlying offense is not a violent felony, according to Tilem & Associates. That enhancement is central to the pending case against Best, given the aggravated harassment charge brought as a hate crime.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso responded to the incident Thursday, saying he was appalled and that “Brooklyn must be safe for all” and “we cannot tolerate attacks on our Jewish neighbors,” according to JNS. His statement came amid citywide reports of anti-Jewish hate crimes this year.
Part of a Sustained Citywide Surge
The Crown Heights chase comes amid anti-Jewish hate crimes across New York City. From January through March, the NYPD confirmed 143 total hate crimes citywide, with anti-Jewish offenses making up 55 percent, or 78 cases, of confirmed bias incidents in that quarter, the AJC separately reported.
Crown Heights in particular has seen a string of violent incidents targeting Jewish residents and institutions this year. In late January, a driver repeatedly rammed a vehicle into the front doors of the World Lubavitch Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, an attack that led to an NYPD hate-crime investigation and federal charges filed in March.
