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Man Charged with Hate Crime for Central Park Pellet Gun Attacks, Police Say

By Lindsay Armstrong | September 1, 2014 12:40pm
NYPD Investigating Possible Hate Crime in Central Park
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NYPD

UPPER WEST SIDE — A man has been charged in a pair of racially motivated pellet-gun attacks on two Central Park joggers last month, police said.

Edward J. Fall, 20, was charged with assault and reckless endangerment as hate crimes and criminal possession of a weapon after he was connected to two separate pellet-gun shootings in Central Park last month, police said. 

Shortly after midnight on August 18, a 36-year-old woman told police that she had just finished a jog in the park when she was struck in the back of the head by a pellet. The woman said that she turned and saw three men and two women laughing and yelling anti-white epithets before they fled into the park, according to the NYPD.

The woman suffered minor injuries, including lacerations from the pellet, police said. She was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, treated and released.  

A day earlier, a 34-year-old man was struck in the head by a pellet while jogging near Central Park North and East Drive about 9 p.m., according to police. The man did not see who shot him and told police that nothing was said at the time, according to the Daily News.

Fall was arrested early Saturday morning for marijuana possession, according to published reports. Police connected him to the shootings after finding a pellet gun in his possession.

Police are still looking for four other suspects, including two men and two women, all between the ages of 15 and 20 and wearing dark clothing.