Man who Wielded Screwdriver and Screamed Slurs, Charged with Hate Crime

     Two boys who were standing on 18th Avenue near McDonald Avenue on Monday night, Aug. 16, were chased by a perpetrator who was brandishing a screwdriver, while spouting anti-Semitic slurs.

     After Shomrim volunteers were called, they caught up with the suspect on Avenue F, where they handed him over for arrest to NYPD.

     The assailant and the victims were then brought to the 66th Precinct to come in for questioning, however, the police ended up charging the suspect, not with a hate crime, but only with menacing.

     When the case was brought to the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, however, who is notably tough on perpetrators of hate crimes, the DA pushed ahead with a hate crime charge and handed over the case to the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force.