CROWN HEIGHTS — Police have identified the suspect who stabbed a 25-year-old Jewish man in the back in Crown Heights Wednesday in what police are investigating as a possible hate crime, the NYPD said.
The department released video taken from surveillance footage soon after the apparently random attack, which took place on Empire Boulevard between Albany and Kingston avenues at noon on Wednesday.
In the footage, the suspect is seen running down the middle of the street wearing a blue hoodie under a dark jacket with black pants and boots.
The NYPD also released a photo of the suspect, wearing the same clothes and a red hat, walking by a chain link fence along a sidewalk.
Police believe the suspect stabbed the 25-year-old victim in the back as the two passed each other on Empire Boulevard around 11:40 a.m. Wednesday. Police said the two did not speak to one another before the assault. The suspect fled on foot immediately after slashing the man with an unknown object.
The NYPD said they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, as the victim, who is Jewish, was wearing Hasidic "garb” at the time, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
The victim was treated at Kings County Hospital for a collapsed lung on Wednesday. He is expected to make a full recovery, sources said.
Within hours of the assault, politicians across New York and Brooklyn condemned the attack; Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was “very concerned” about the incident and echoed the NYPD’s take on the incident.
"We are looking at it as a potential hate crime," he said.
The Anti-Defamation League is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the stabbing suspect, calling the crime “just one in a series of traumatic attacks” against Jews in the borough in recent months, including the slashing of a Hatzolah ambulance worker in Crown Heights in November.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish (888) 57-PISTA (74782).
