An assailant who brutally attacked a Jewish man on a New York City subway in July 2022 has finally been arrested nearly seven months later, according to Jewish activist Dov Hikind.
The man allegedly punched the victim in the face for being Jewish, leaving him with blood pouring down his shirt.
“I’ve just been informed that the violent hate criminal who viciously attacked the man pictured below has just been found and arrested!” Hikind, the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, posted to Twitter.
“I’m thankful the NYPD followed through and secured the arrest. Let’s hope the DA will seek justice for the victim and not the criminal!” he added.
On July 27, shortly after the victim was attacked, Hikind tweeted: “This man was violently attacked yesterday on the NYC subway because he's Jewish just hours after Americans Against Antisemitism released its damning report showing that NYC DAs are derelict in their duty to prosecute violent criminals.”
He demanded that “there must be consequences for violence or it will get worse!”
Hikind also interviewed the man, who described how he was attacked for being Jewish.
The brutal attack on the E train left him with lacerations on his face and sent him to the hospital.
“This Jewish man was violently attacked for no other reason than being identifiably Jewish, and the perpetrator told him he’d have killed the Jewish man if only he had a gun,” Hikind said.
The victim told Hikind that there were around a dozen people in the train car with him. He recounted that the attacker walked onto the subway and stepped on his foot.
“I grimace in pain and he thinks maybe I’m about to do something but instead he reaches for my phone, he says, ‘Give me the phone. Stop recording me.’ And he pulls my phone. He pulls my phone, he says, ‘Give me the phone, Jew.’”
He said that he refused to give him the phone and then the assailant punched him in the face, splitting his lip.
“There’s blood pouring out of my mouth. It’s going all over my face, it’s going all over my arms, it’s on my shirt. I’m dripping in blood and nobody in the subway is doing absolutely anything. Nobody got up to do anything,” he said.
He added that it was only after the subway arrived at the next station that new passengers began to react to the situation.
He remembered that at that point, he was in shock and covered with blood that he described as “gushing from my mouth.”
He was treated at a hospital where he received multiple stitches in his mouth.
Several Twitter users credited Hkind for publicizing the attack, which eventually led to an arrest.
“If not for you, Dov, this would be an anonymous crime,” Jeffrey S Wiesenfeld, a former senior government official, tweeted.