TEL AVIV – An elderly Hasidic man was attacked in New York City in broad daylight. Shlomy Schwartz, 67, of Brooklyn was assaulted soon after exiting the subway at 6th Avenue and 17th Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
The assailant “punched him in the back of his head knocking off his hat, Yarmulke, and said, ‘You want to be First? …Lets Go’, implying lets go fight,” an official told JPUpdates.
According the victim’s son, the streets were busy at the time. “There were a lot of people passing the street at the time of the assault and no one stopped him,” said Chaim Shloem Schwartz.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit are investigating the incident. The suspect was described as 5’9” black male with dreadlocks.
“This type of hate violence is truly appalling,” the local New York City Councilman Corey Johnson said. “No New Yorker should ever be targeted because of his or her religious affiliation. This is not what New York stands for and we will not stand for it. I thank the NYPD for vigorously investigating this incident.”