Courtesy Benny Friedman(NEW YORK) — A 26-year-old man has been arrested and charged with a hate crime in connection to an attack on a 63-year-old Jewish man in a Brooklyn, New York park, police said Thursday.
Oniel Gilbourne, of Brooklyn, was charged with assault as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon following the Aug. 27 attack on the man, whose name was not released, according to the New York City Police Department. Gilbourne was hospitalized after his arrest, but police did not say why or where.
ABC News was unable to reach Gilbourne for comment. It’s unclear if he’s obtained an attorney.
The man attacked was wearing a yarmulke when he was punched by the suspect, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department told ABC News.
The victim’s son-in-law said he heard the suspect “was yelling ‘dirty Jew,’ which makes it very painful.”
“My father-in-law has a big beard. My father-in-law is very easily identifiable as a Hasidic Jew. My father-in-law speaks English with a very heavy Israeli accent,” Benny Friedman, the son-in-law, said.
There was not a verbal or physical interaction between the two prior to the fight, police said.
The victim was taken to Maimonides Hospital and has since been released. He suffered a laceration to his forehead and had his two front teeth knocked out. Friedman also said his father-in-law’s nose was broken in two places and his leg was injured.
According to NYPD records, there have been 145 anti-Semitic hate crime complaints between Jan. 1 and Aug. 25 of this year throughout New York City. By comparison, there were 88 such complaints during the same time period in 2018.
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