Two additional men were arrested on Wednesday in connection to anti-Semitic attacks last weekend against Jews in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., said the New York City Police Department.
Haider Anjam, 20, and Ashan Azad, 19, both from Brooklyn, were taken into custody on charges of harassment and aggravated harassment as a hate crime, NBC News reported. Anjam also faces a charge of menacing as a hate crime.
The NYPD announced on Tuesday that Danial Shaukat, 20, also of Brooklyn, was arrested on a charge of aggravated harassment as a hate crime. He was arraigned on additional charges, including assault as a hate crime and harassment, with bail set at $5,000 or $2,500 a case.
All three men are accused of driving up to the synagogue Agudath Israel in Borough Park on May 22 and yelling “anti-Jewish statements” at a group of four men standing outside, said police. According to a criminal complaint, the men yelled “Free Palestine” and “We’ll kill all the Jews.”
After the Jewish group standing outside the synagogue went inside and locked the door, the assailants exited the car and started banging on it. The suspects then kicked the side-view mirror off a parked car, causing more than $250 in damages, added authorities.
Police said the same three men are suspected of harassing two Jewish teenagers that night, also in Borough Park, demanding that they repeat “anti-Jewish statements.” When the victims refused, the attackers began punching them in the head. One victim was put in a “rear chokehold” and an attacker chased the victims while “brandishing a baseball bat.”
