{"id":494122,"date":"2026-02-21T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494122\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:00:07","slug":"man-charged-with-hate-crime-after-allegedly-ramming-gates-of-brisbane-synagogue-with-ute-brisbane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494122\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged with hate crime after allegedly ramming gates of Brisbane synagogue with ute | Brisbane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have charged a man after a car was used to ram the gates of a synagogue in Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officers say the man was driving a Toyota Hilux utility when he knocked down the gates of the property in Margaret Street in Brisbane\u2019s CBD shortly after 7pm on Friday.<\/p>\n

The driver fled the scene before being taken into custody a short time later.<\/p>\n

No one was injured during the incident.<\/p>\n

A 32-year-old Sunnybank man was expected to appear before the Brisbane magistrates court on Saturday. He has been charged with wilful damage, serious vilification or hate crime, dangerous operation of a vehicle, and drug possession offences.<\/p>\n

Queensland police Acting Supt, Michael Hogan, said the attack was targeted at the synagogue, but it was not being considered a terrorist act.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecialist counter-terrorism of officers have been involved in the investigation from the very start, and I can confirm this is not considered a terrorist incident,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice are considering the man\u2019s mental health and intoxication as being contributing factors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Hogan said the targeted attack on a Jewish place of worship was an aggravating factor in the charges being brought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was definitely a targeted attack against the Jewish synagogue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video surveillance [shows] it\u2019s very clear that [the driver] intended to do some damage to the gates.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one was injured in the attack \u2013 the CCTV footage released by police shows a person inside the synagogue grounds jumping backwards as the ute rams the gates \u2013 and police say they believe the attacker did not intend to enter the synagogue.<\/p>\n

Police released CCTV showing the alleged ramming of the synagogue gates. Photograph: News.com.au<\/p>\n

The vice-president of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, Libby Burke, said the state\u2019s Jewish community was \u201cdeeply distressed\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said \u201call Jews in Queensland should be able to attend synagogue and live our lives free from fear\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis attack is not only an attack on my community, it is an attack on all of us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Burke said the community\u2019s synagogue was a sacred place, \u201ca place of prayer, reflection, and community\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has described the alleged attack as concerning and says Jewish Australians would be feeling deeply distressed by the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have spoken to Jewish leaders, as well as police, and I want to assure Queenslanders we are taking this seriously,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another signal as to why we have put strong laws before parliament to protect all people where they worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going through the process and I fully intend to have them passed during the next sitting of parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n

An inquiry into the proposed legislation has been told multiple stakeholders were not consulted before the bill was drafted.<\/p>\n

The Federation of Islamic Councils, the Islamic Council of Queensland, and the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland all told the state\u2019s parliamentary committee for justice, integrity and community safety that they had been bypassed.<\/p>\n

Under the laws, Queensland\u2019s attorney general would have the power to outlaw phrases, the public uttering of which would be punishable by two years in prison.<\/p>\n

Police say their investigation into Friday evening\u2019s apparent attack is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have charged a man after a car was used to ram the gates of a synagogue in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-494122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}