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COURIER L 24 IFE, DEC. 7–13, 2018 M B G
BORO FIGHTS HATE
Former city intern charged for
defi ling P’Heights synagogue
BY COLIN MIXSON
A Bedford-Stuyvesant man and former
city intern faces up to 25 years
in prison if convicted on hate crimecharges
for allegedly vandalizing a
Prospect Heights synagogue and setting
fi res at two Williamsburg Jewish
sites earlier this month.
Prosecutors slapped the 26-year-old
with charges including second-degree
arson and third-degree burglary as
hate crimes as part of a 30-count indictment
they announced on Nov. 28.
“These alleged bias-motivated
crimes are disheartening and undermine
the values that we hold dear in
our community,” said District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez. “In Brooklyn, people
of all faiths, cultures, ethnicities,
and races should feel safe.”
On Nov. 1, the man allegedly tarnished
a stairwell inside Union Temple
on Eastern Parkway with anti-Semitic
graffi ti, scrawling statements
including “Die Jew rats” and “End is
now” in magic marker around 6 pm,
Gonzalez said.
The incident occurred just hours before
a planned 8 pm event there hosted
by “Broad City” actress Ilana Glazer,
who ended up canceling the program
last minute out of fear she would put
her audience in harm’s way if she went
on with the show.
And the next day, the man allegedly
lit fi re to a coat room inside a Hewes
Street yeshiva near Kent Avenue at
2:39 am. Security footage showed him
lingering at the scene for about a minute,
before smoke began billowing out
of the closet, according to Gonzalez.
Police cuffed the man later that day
after a witness reported him lighting
more fi res outside Rachmistivka Congregation
on Bedford Avenue between
Ross and Rodney Streets, but the district
attorney’s spokeswoman Helen
Peterson couldn’t immediately say if
he was also charged in that incident.
The defendant previously interned
and volunteered for former Council
Speaker Christine Quinn, who reportedly
inspired him to pursue a college
education at Brandeis University, according
to a 2017 New York Times profi
le of him, which noted his childhood
spent shuffl ing between foster homes.
But after enrolling at the Massachusetts
college, the man’s habit of
smoking pot led school administrators
to place him on a mandatory leave of
absence to attend rehab, after which
they rejected his application to return
to the school, the Times reported.
The man is due to return to court
on Feb. 6, according to Gonzalez.
Man cuffed for attacking Jewish
victim in Williamsburg on Shabbat
BY JULIANNE CUBA AND COLIN MIXSON
Cops on Dec. 4 cuffed a guy for terrorizing
a Jewish man in Williamsburg on
the evening of Nov. 30.
Police slapped the 31-year-old suspect
from Bedford-Stuyvesant with
hate-crime and third-degree assault
charges for allegedly punching the
Jewish man wearing what’s called
a shtreimel — a fur hat often worn
by Hasidic Jews on the Sabbath — in
the head on Throop Avenue near Wallabout
street around 6:40 pm, injuring
him about two hours after Shabbat began
at sundown.
The suspect hit the victim in the
noggin just days after another punk
clocked a Jewish kid, dressed in what
authorities described as traditional attire,
in the face on a nearby street on
Nov. 25.
Authorities are still searching
for that suspect, and for other reprobates
who attacked another Jewish
man on his way to a synagogue in
Crown Heights on Dec. 1.
The brutes attacked the victim
from behind at 6:30 am on New York
Avenue between Albany and Troy
avenues as he walked to the house of
worship, beating him and injuring his
hand, head, and neck, according to Police
Department spokesman Det. Hubert
Reyes.
Fortunately for investigators, the
man didn’t give in without a fi ght,
and at one point he grabbed a pair
of glasses off of one of his attackers,
which cops are testing for DNA evidence
they hope will lead them to a
suspect, according to a report by local
blog Crown Heights dot info that cites
an anonymous police source.
The Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 incidents occurred
on the same weekend that another
baddie urinated and damaged
two statues outside of a Williamsburg
Catholic church on Dec. 2, an act of
vandalism cops are also investigating
as a hate crime.
Anyone with information in regard
to these incidents is asked to call
the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at
1-800-577-TIPS (8477).