A man was arrested Saturday morning after an assault on a Jewish man walking to a Shabbos Sheva Brochos at a Williamsburg synagogue. Williamsburg News placed the incident around 8:40 a.m. near Heyward Street and Bedford Avenue; VINnews reported that Shomrim volunteers and NYPD officers detained the suspect near the scene.
According to VINnews, surveillance footage reportedly shows the suspect walking past the Jewish man and spilling something on him, which triggered a confrontation. The footage appears to show the man defending himself before an assault took place, the outlet reported. Shomrim volunteers and officers from the NYPD's 90th Precinct responded to the scene and apprehended the suspect, while Hatzolah also responded and provided medical assistance to the victim.
The NYPD was investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, VINnews reported. At the time of its report, authorities had not released the suspect's identity or further details about the confrontation.
Williamsburg News Flagged The Video As It Circulated
“Shocking video” of an assault “on a Jewish person.” — X, Williamsburg News
Williamsburg News described the incident as an assault on a Jewish person in its post accompanying the surveillance clip. The account had also reported the time and location; its characterization of the attack as a hate crime was not a determination by authorities.
Part Of A Series Of Reported Attacks Near Houses Of Worship
Brooklyn Paper has described incidents like this one as part of what it called a string of anti-Semitic and other hate crimes that have rattled the borough over the past month, though the evidence does not establish a broader statistical trend. That outlet, in a separate report, detailed a case in which a 31-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant man was charged with a hate crime and third-degree assault for allegedly punching a Jewish man wearing a shtreimel on Throop Avenue near Wallabout Street. The same report said police were still searching for suspects who attacked and injured a Jewish man walking to a synagogue in Crown Heights, with victims struck from behind near New York Avenue as he headed to the house of worship.
Other recent Williamsburg cases have drawn hate-crime charges as well. As Hoodline previously reported, 41-year-old Andrzej Wnuk was arraigned on hate-crime assault and other charges after an attack near Throop Avenue and Gerry Street left three men, ages 21, 38 and 48, struck in the shoulder, head and back; all three complained of facial pain but declined medical treatment at the scene. A VINnews report at the time said Wnuk, wearing a T-shirt bearing the Iranian flag, allegedly approached the three men separately and struck them while shouting anti-Jewish remarks. A judge set his bail at $5,000 cash, Hoodline reported.
In a separate Williamsburg case, JNS reported that Isharae Summers, 35, was charged with 13 counts, including four hate crimes, after an alleged assault on an Orthodox Jewish man walking home with his family around 11:20 p.m. on a Friday, according to JNS's account of that incident. These cases remain distinct; the reports do not establish that they are connected. The NYPD hate crimes dashboard publishes quarterly and annual complaint and arrest summaries.
What Citywide Data Shows
New York City's Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes reported that overall hate-crime complaints decreased by 3% from 2023 to 2024, while anti-Jewish hate-crime complaints increased by 6%. The figures include reports initiated by both members of the public and officers, according to the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. These citywide complaint figures do not establish the motive in Saturday's attack.
No additional details about Saturday's arrest, including the suspect's identity or any charges, had been released as of VINnews's report.
