New York

Suspect Arrested in Hate-Crime Attack on Jewish Man: NYPD

Enrique Gerena, 32, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime on Tuesday, police said

What to Know

  • A man has been arrested for allegedly punching a Jewish man in the head in an incident police deemed a hate crime, the NYPD said
  • Enrique Gerena, 32, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime on Tuesday, police said
  • Police say Gerena and his victim didn't know each other

A man has been arrested for allegedly punching a Jewish man in the head in an incident police deemed a hate crime, the NYPD said.

Enrique Gerena, 32, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime on Tuesday, police said.

The victim, also a 32-year-old man, was talking to friends in Williamsburg on Friday evening when Gerena allegedly ran up to the group and punched him in the head from behind, according to police. He suffered minor injuries. 

Police say Gerena didn't know the victim. The victim was Jewish and wearing a shtreimel, a fur hat worn by some Hasidic Jewish men. He had been standing on Throop Avenue at Wallabout Street. 

The Anti-Defamation League offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. 

“We remain increasingly concerned by the number of alleged unprovoked assaults on Orthodox Jewish individuals in Brooklyn in recent weeks,” said Evan R. Bernstein, regional director of ADL for New York and New Jersey.

Last weekend, a boy wearing Hasidic clothing was beaten by a man in an apparently unprovoked attack just a block from Friday's attack, police say.

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