A driver jumped a curb and nearly mowed down people outside an Orthodox Jewish school in New York City on Wednesday, authorities said.
The driver of a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria yelled anti-Semitic slurs as he veered off the road and drove off at people on the sidewalk near East 56th Street and Glenwood Road in Brooklyn shortly before 11:25 a.m., according to a statement from the New York Police Department.
Surveillance camera footage showed at least two people wearing yarmulkes and long black clothing running for cover to escape an oncoming vehicle.
Ali Asghar, 58, was arrested and charged with a string of offenses, including attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime, according to authorities.
It was not immediately clear Thursday whether the suspect had hired or been appointed a criminal lawyer to represent him.
Chaim Moskovitz, 17, a student at Mesivta Nakhlas Yaakov school, saw a car coming toward him on Wednesday.
“I was so scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen next,” Moskowitz told NBC News on Thursday.
Moskowitz said even before Wednesday’s incident, she had been keeping an eye out for anything unusual happening around her school and neighborhood.
“I think about this a lot,” he said. “Every time I walk I’m scared.”
The student said he is still “shaken” by Wednesday’s close call, but thanked the NYPD for quickly arresting the suspect.
New York City Council Member Farrah Lewis called the incident, which took place in her district, a “senseless act of bigotry and violence.”
“No group or community should live in fear of violence, discrimination or intimidation. We must address the rise in anti-Semitism to prevent such acts of hate in the future,” she said in a statement.
Representatives for the school could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Wednesday’s incident came about two weeks after a 12-year-old boy allegedly punched and kicked two Hasidic Jewish boys as they played on Franklin Street in Brooklyn, about 5.5 miles north of the scene of the car attack, police said.
The young assailant was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment as hate crimes.
