A hammer-wielding maniac was arrested at a Queens Jewish school on Tuesday morning for allegedly menacing a woman with the weapon and shoving an 8-year-old child, police reported.
Sources close to the investigation said the disturbing incident — now being investigated as a possible hate crime amid an ongoing surge of antisemitism citywide — occurred just before 10:50 a.m. on July 28 at the Jewish Institute of Queens, located at 60-05 Woodhaven Blvd. in Elmhurst, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
Law enforcement sources said the perpetrator, a 42-year-old emotionally disturbed man, allegedly wielded a hammer while chasing a woman into the school off the street and into the school. Security staff immediately stopped the suspect, and they disarmed him.
As security attempted to force the suspect to the exit, cops said, he broke free and shoved an 8-year-old boy into a fence. The youngster suffered a laceration to his head. EMS rushed the child to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Meanwhile, school staff called 911 and officers from the 112th Precinct responded to the scene. Cops took the perpetrator at the scene; criminal charges are pending the results of the investigation.
The suspect, who authorities have yet to name, is reportedly no stranger to police. Sources say he was most recently cuffed in Manhattan on July 24 after stealing $1300 worth of merchandise from Bergdorf Goodman. On July 8 he was taken into police custody for a petit larceny in Queens. He also is accused of having gang ties in East New York.
The incident happened amid an ongoing uptick in hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers. Last week, a suspect was arrested for stabbing two men on the Upper West Side; in one instance, the perpetrator used a screwdriver to attack a Jewish man while shouting “Allah akhbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
Although no connections have been made between such crimes and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rhetoric on the war in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some elected officials have called upon the mayor to lower the temperature. They have argued that his statements have contributed to an air of hostility toward the Jewish community.
The mayor stressed on Monday that his condemnation of the war should not be interpreted as an attack on Israel or the Jewish people altogether.
“What I will say is that here in New York City, one of my top priorities is keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe, keeping every single New Yorker safe,” Mamdani said at a July 27 press conference. “When I make criticisms of Prime Minister Netanyahu, they are criticisms of Prime Minister Netanyahu.”