Police are investigating two troubling attacks in Brooklyn - one classified as a hate crime, the other a suspected hate crime - that happened within hours of each other. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.
Police posters were displayed on lampposts in Crown Heights as detectives went door to door Wednesday looking for answers to who stabbed an off-duty Jewish Hatzolah EMS volunteer on Eastern Parkway near Rogers Avenue on Tuesday night. Police say it might have been a hate crime.
"He was walking, and that's what makes it more horrific. They were attacking him, it appears, due to his religious belief and who he represents," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
Adams joined other elected leaders in denouncing the attack at a press conference in front of the Jewish Children's Museum, just blocks from where the slashing occurred.
"We want to live in a community where people of all races and nationalities can live and coexist and live peacefully," said City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo of Brooklyn.
Police are investigating it as a possible bias crime because the suspect wore a mask and did not rob the victim, who was clearly Jewish. The victim who has since been treated at a hospital and released.
Just hours after the assault, there was another attack, this one classified as a bias crime, just blocks away at Lefferts and Albany Avenues on Wednesday. A Jewish man was punched walking to synagogue. A man was charged with a hate crime.
Police believe the two incidents are unrelated, but they come as thousands are heading to Crown Heights for an annual gathering of Lubavitch Jews.
"We're shocked and appalled by what happened over the last 24 hours here in the borough," said Evan Bernstein of the Anti-Defamation League.
Yitzchok Lipszyc is in town for the event.
"I'm concerned, obviously," he said. I'm not happy about the situation, that's for sure."
The Anti-Defamation League and the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council are each offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Meanwhile, some are calling for stepped-up security.
"I'm ready to actually help with some capital money to bring more surveillance cameras into this community, put them all over the place," said Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn.