Caught On Camera: Jewish Man Targeted In Williamsburg Sucker-Punch Attack
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A disturbing assault was caught on camera in Brooklyn.
Surveillance videos captured a man running up and sucker-punching a 33-year-old Jewish man in the back of the head Friday night in Williamsburg.
Authorities did not release any specific information about the incident, but said they are investigating an attack that was reported on Throop Avenue at around 6 p.m. that night.
The suspect was seen turning back the way he came and fleeing after striking the man. Two other men are seen on the video chasing the man, but no arrests have been reported.
"We start running after him, but, unfortunately, we grabbed him ... we got him. ... We caught him, but unfortunately no cop was there to get him," community leader Jude Werzberger told CBS2's Lisa Rozner. "I felt just like everybody else over here, that you have to be afraid on the streets and nobody cares."
Police are also looking for a man who they say punched a 9-year-old boy several times in the face last Sunday night, CBS2's Rozner reported.
"You feel like you're in a wilted country where people don't like us," Werzberger said.
MORE: Arrest Made After Anti-Semitic Graffiti Cancels Political Event, Classes At Brooklyn Synagogue
The NYPD says anti-Semitic crimes are by far the most common hate crime, with 168 documented in 2018 so far. That's up almost 25 percent from this time last year.
This week, Columbia University professor Elizabeth Midlarsky discovered two swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur written across her office walls. On Sunday, the first night of Hannukah, she offered a message for the person who did it.
"You're not going to win. You're not going to win," an emotional Midlarsky said. "Happy Hanukkah."
The Anti-Defamation League is offering up to a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in any of these cases, Rozner reported.
Anyone with information about the crimes are asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting them to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
