Arrested Made in Knockout Attack on Crown Heights’ Child

CROWN HEIGHTS

A 13-year-old African-American boy was arrested late Monday night and charged in a knockout attack against a 12-year-old Orthodox Jewish boy in Crown Heights two weeks ago, marking the first time an arrest was made in the series of senseless attacks that have left the Jewish community here anxious.

The arrested teen, whose name was not publicized, attended a school for children who aresuspended from the regular public school system. He was charged with third-degree assault and aggravated harassment. Due to his age, he was released later Monday into the custody of his mother, who lives in nearby East Flatbush. He has a first court appearance on Wednesday.

The Jewish Future Alliance released a statement congratulating the New York Police Department for the arrest.

According to police, the boy was not playing the sick knockout game in which gangs dare each other to knock out a victim with a single blow to the head. He told police that his friends were making fun of him and told him that if he didn’t hit someone he wouldn’t get any respect from them.

The boy, together with another black teen, then approached a 12-year-old Lubavitcher boy and punched him in the face. The boy’s father told CBS News that after the attack, his son heard one of them give “a hysterical, happy shout: ‘We got him.’”

The two walked away without stealing anything, a common denominator among other knockout skirmishes.

The NYPD, along with other police forces across the country who are forced to deal with the knockout phenomenon, are still hesitant to call it anything more than unrelated criminal incidents.

Asked Tuesday whether an attack on a 72-year-old Russian Jewish woman in Starret City was a “knockout,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he was still unsure.

“The seven core ones happened in the Crown Heights area, which certainly has a Chassidic population, and some of the victims were Chassidic males and children, and I actually think a woman as well. So, we’re not discounting that,” Kelly said.

But Kelly added that while police brass grapples with the question of whether the knockout game exists, “We’re concerned about it because the public is concerned about it.”

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