New York police have arrested an 18-year-old Brooklyn male in connection with egg-throwing attacks on Jews in the borough, JTA reported Thursday.
The city’s Hate Crimes Task Force took Mohib Hoque into custody late Wednesday night. He has been charged with three hate crimes, including assault, and reckless endangerment, according to the report.
A mother and child walking in the Borough Park neighborhood were among those targeted as were worshippers leaving a synagogue. The building was hit by the eggs.
Brooklyn Councilman Chaim Deutsch in a statement Wednesday thanked the Hate Crimes Task Force for its “swift work” in apprehending a suspect.
“We are sending a clear message that hatred and bias of any kind will not be tolerated in New York City,” he wrote. “No stone will be left unturned in the pursuit of the perpetrators.”
There have been several attacks against Jews in Brooklyn recently. Earlier this month, several identifiably Jewish men and boys were attacked in a string of assaults in the Borough Park community.
A teenager was later arrested in connection with the series of attacks.
In an incident last month, a Jewish man was slapped in the face and called a “dirty Jew” in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
On Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish woman was approached by a female teenager who “pulled her scarf and wig from her head”, according to police.
Also during Rosh Hashanah, the windows of a synagogue in Brooklyn were broken during services.
The number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City rose significantly over the first nine months of this year. The NYPD reported 311 total hate crimes through September, as opposed to 250 through the same period in 2018.
Some 52 percent of the reported hate crimes, or 163, targeted Jews. Over the same period last year, the NYPD reported 108 anti-Semitic hate crimes.