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Attackers Ask Men if They're Saudi or Muslim Before Punching Them: NYPD

By Aidan Gardiner | December 16, 2016 9:33am

BROOKLYN — Attackers broke one man's jaw and gave another a bloody nose in two separate Bedford-Stuyvesant beatings in which they asked if they were Muslim or from Saudi Arabia, NYPD officials said.

The suspects, one of whom can be seen in surveillance footage released Thursday, first asked a 20-year-old man near 515 Gates Ave. about his ethnicity about 4:45 p.m. on Dec. 4 before one of them slugged him in the face and another knocked him to the ground, police said.

It wasn't clear how many people were part of the group that attacked him, but they fled towards Marcy Avenue, police said.

The victim brought himself to Elmhurst Hospital where he was treated for a broken jaw, police said.

One of the suspects, the one seen in the video, then asked the religion of a  58-year-old man walking north on Marcus Garvey Boulevard near Vernon Avenue about 4 p.m. on Wednesday before punching him in the face, police said.

The victim's nose was bleeding as his face swelled up, police said. He was treated at Woodhull Medical Center, police said.

The suspect fled and neither he nor any of the others involved had been arrested as of Friday morning, police said.

He is about 35, 160 pounds and 6 feet, police said. He was last seen wearing a black hoodie with a white design on it and gray sweatpants, police said.

The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the attacks, an NYPD spokesman said.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).