Armed Men Steal Car, Mug and Assault Men Near Baltimore Shul

By Reuvain Borchardt

A gang of four armed teens stole a vehicle, then beat and robbed Jewish men heading to shul Tuesday morning in Baltimore.

The gang arrived in Baltimore’s heavily Jewish neighborhood of Ranchleigh shortly before 7 a.m. in a dark Kia Optima sedan. They stole a car from a driveway in the 6500 block of Clarington Road, then drove it around the corner to Pebble Brook Road, and abandoned it near Kehillas Meor HaTorah, where men were heading to Shacharis.

The teens saw a man, Eli Neuberger, heading to shul, and began chasing him.

Then, in a scene captured on cellphone camera by a witness in a nearby home, the teens walk up to a white SUV whose driver, Dovi Ziskind, had just parked, and was heading to shul.

Neuberger, who has just been chased, saw his friend was about to get mugged. “I yelled that they have guns, and that he should get back in his car,” Neuberger told Hamodia.

Ziskind told Hamodia, “I heard Eli yelling, so I ran back toward my car. I got in the car, and I was also trying to see if I could get the plates of their car. But before I knew what was happening, one guy came up to my door and another one opened the passenger door.”

They forced Ziksind out of the car and pushed him to the ground, stealing his wallet, which had what Ziskind described as “a large amount of cash.”

As Ziskind was being mugged, Neuberger ran back toward the gang. He was then chased again, and one assailant slapped him on the head, and unsuccessfully tried grabbing his phone.

Neither Neuberger nor Ziskind was seriously injured.

The gang fled the scene in the Optima in which they had arrived.

A law-enforcement source tells Hamodia that in the two hours after this incident, the Optima was involved in six carjackings in other Baltimore neighborhoods.

“This is how these teen gangs operate,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They steal and carjack cars and abandon them after a few blocks. They don’t always even want money. It’s just a game to them.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com