Police Arrest Suspect in Antisemitic Bat Attack in Staten Island

By Reuvain Borchardt

The NYPD has arrested a man suspected of smacking a Jew in the head with a metal bat multiple times, while calling him “dirty Jew.”

At 12:05 p.m. Wednesday, police arested Obadiah Lashley, 29, of Staten Island. He has been charged with assault as a hate crime, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, aggravated harassment, and menacing.

The incident occurred Monday in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood of Staten Island, an area where the Department of Motor Vehicles gives road tests. The victim, a driving instructor for the Beep Beep Auto School, had just gotten out of his vehicle to allow the DMV road tester to get in and take the instructor’s student for a road test, and he began walking down the street.

The victim, 25, who spoke to Hamodia on Tuesday, on condition of anonymity, told Hamodia a man suddenly walked up to him: “He pointed at my yarmulke and asked me, ‘How do you know you’re Jewish?’ and he stuck his hand in my face. I knocked his hand away, and then I started yelling, ‘Get out of here,’ and, ‘How dare you.’ He called me a ‘dirty Jew’ and then he started briefly backing off into the street. All of a sudden I saw he was holding a small metal bat. Before I know it, he starts smacking me with it.”

The assailant struck the victim in the abdominal area, knocking him to the ground.

“Then he started hitting me on the head,” the victim said. “He just continued banging and banging and banging. It must have been five or ten times. I blacked out for a few seconds, and then I noticed people running toward me, and he fled the scene.”

The victim was discharged from the hospital after receiving stitches on his head. Though still suffering pain, he said he feels fortunate to be alive.

“G-d saved me,” he said. “It was a miracle.”

Following news of the arrest on Wednesday, the victim said, “I want to thank the NYPD and Staten Island Shomrim for vigilantly pursuing this case. Now I hope the criminal-justice system keeps this guy off the streets so that he can’t harm anyone else.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com