Bike-Riding Assailants Strike Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg

By Matis Glenn

Police are searching for a pair of bike-riding attackers who allegedly slapped two Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg last Thursday.

The first incident took place at around 7:30 p.m. on the corner of Wallabout Street and Walton Street, when a woman who was riding on a Citybike as a passenger in front of the bike struck a visibly Jewish man from behind in his head, before fleeing the scene on the bike. The victim did not require medical attention.

The pair allegedly repeated their method of terrorizing a few minutes later, when the passenger hit the back of the head of a 24-year-old visibly Jewish woman who was walking in front of 184 Wallabout Street. In this case, too, the victim did not require medical attention.

A day earlier, a similar incident occurred in Boro Park. At around 7:20 p.m., a man riding an electric scooter stopped to knock the yarmulkah off of a visibly Orthodox Jewish man walking on 45th Street and 18th Avenue. The suspect then got back on his scooter and fled. The victim did not sustain any injuries.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating all three incidents as hate crimes.