ANT KATZ

Hate crime

A 24-year-old Jewish student was assaulted at Brooklyn College in an incident last week which the authorities say is being investigated as a hate crime.

The student, who was wearing a kippah, was assaulted at Medgar Evers College, part of the City University of New York system and is located on the western edge of Crown Heights, a gentrifying neighbourhood that has long been home to many Hasidic Jews, African Americans and Caribbean Americans.

RIGHT: Medgar Evers College

The student was apparently chatting in a hallway in the college’s academic building when an African-American man he did not know collided with him from behind and then punched the student in the head, face and stomach.

When asked why, the suspect, who is still at large, allegedly said: “I don’t like white and Jewish. Leave the school, you Jew.”

After interviewing the victim and several witnesses, including a Muslim woman who reported the incident to campus security, the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force ruled the incident a bias assault.

Muslim woman came to his aid

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video footage of the incident. It is not known whether the alleged assailant was a student at the college. 

“This was an awful act of violence and of ignorance,” said College President Rudolph Crew. “While such incidents are fortunately rare on campus, even one is too many. To attack someone because of his or her race or religious beliefs is appalling. I want to make it clear that we have zero tolerance for this type of behaviour and we will do everything in our power to ensure the assailant is found and held fully accountable for these hateful actions.”

Established in 1970, Medgar Evers College is named for the slain African-American civil rights activist who worked to desegregate the University of Mississippi.

The suspect fled through the building’s main entrance. Detectives are trying to determine if he is affiliated with the college.