CHELSEA — A Jewish man from Brooklyn lost his hat and yarmulke after being punched in the back of the head on Monday in an incident that is being investigated as a possible hate crime, the NYPD said.
The 67-year-old victim was walking south on Sixth Avenue near 16th Street Monday afternoon after leaving the subway when a man approached him and punched him in the head, knocking his hat and yarmulke to the ground, the NYPD said.
JPUpdates, which first reported the incident, said the victim told officials the suspect approached him and said, “You want to be first? Let’s go” before the attack.
“There were a lot of people passing the street at the time of the assault and no one stopped him,” his son told JPUpdates.
The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attack, police said. The NYPD did not have a description of the suspect.
A day after the alleged incident, local Councilman Corey Johnson issued a statement denouncing the incident and thanked the NYPD for investigating.
“This type of hate violence is truly appalling,” 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 accept it.”
