New York City police arrested a man at Central Synagogue on hate crime charges after he disrupted a Shabbat service and allegedly assaulted a 63-year-old woman. File Photo Peter Foley\/EPA<\/p>\n
Aug. 15 (UPI) — A man in New York was arrested on hate crime charges after disrupting a Shabbat service and allegedly injuring a congregant in a Manhattan synagogue on Friday, police said.<\/p>\n
Larry Montes, 46 of the Bronx, was arrested at Central Synagogue in the Upper East Side and charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime.\n<\/p>\n
“As synagogue security was escorting him out, he struck a member of the congregation, damaged synagogue property, and then spit at and headbutted a member of the security team,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amid the confusion, there were shouts of panic as people in the synagogue scrambled, CNN<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n One congregant, a 63-year-old woman, suffered a cut to her lip and injuries to her right forearm, according to the news outlet.<\/p>\n “Every New Yorker must be able to observe their religion without fear of violence,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on X<\/a>. “This despicable act has no place in our city, and our administration will do everything in our power to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe.”\n<\/p>\n