{"id":341461,"date":"2026-09-09T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/341461\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T05:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:00:14","slug":"nypd-hunts-for-stranger-who-knocked-yarmulke-off-mans-head-in-potential-antisemitic-hate-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/341461\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD hunts for stranger who knocked yarmulke off man’s head in potential antisemitic hate crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cops want to question a man who knocked a yarmulke off a 39-year-old man\u2019s head in a potential antisemitic hate crime at a lower Manhattan pharmacy, police<\/a> said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The victim had just entered a Duane Reade on Whitehall St. near State St. in lower Manhattan at about 1 p.m. on May 5 when the stranger approached and slapped the yarmulke off his head, causing it to fall to the ground.<\/p>\n

The suspect said nothing as he attacked the victim and walked off. The victim said he had never met the man who hit him before.<\/p>\n

No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

Police said the suspect was last seen walking south along Whitehall St.<\/p>\n

Cops on Tuesday released surveillance images of the suspect in the hopes that someone recognizes him. The incident is being investigated by the NYPD\u2019s Hate Crimes Task Force.<\/p>\n

At the same time, cops are asking for help in their search for a man they said drew a swastika on a bus stop at the corner of Lefferts Blvd. and Hillside Ave. in Richmond Hill, Queens, on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n

The vandalism took place at about 4:30 a.m., cops said. The vandal used a marker to draw the swastika, as well as some anti-Jewish remarks.\u00a0 The content of the remarks wasn\u2019t immediately disclosed.<\/p>\n

Police released images of suspects in these two separate incidents as Jews across the city prepare to celebrate the High Holy Days later this week. It also came the same day Manhattan prosecutors indicted Raul Morales, 51, on hate crime charges for back-to-back stabbings on the Upper West Side<\/a>\u00a0that included plunging a knife into an Asian man\u2019s back and a screwdriver into a Jewish man\u2019s chest<\/p>\n

Wearing beige prison garb over a white T-shirt to his\u00a0Manhattan Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0arraignment, Raul Morales, 51, pleaded not guilty to four counts of attempted murder as a hate crime, two counts of assault as a hate crime, two counts of attempted assault as a hate crime, and related charges. The charges carry up to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors at\u00a0Manhattan District Attorney<\/a>\u00a0Alvin Bragg\u2019s office said that, through search warrants, they had uncovered antisemitic sentiments in text messages on Morales\u2019 cell phone.<\/p>\n

When asked for details, DA Bragg, who attended the hearing, declined to comment on what the text messages said, saying only that his office would vigorously litigate the \u201cheinous antisemitic incident\u201d in court<\/p>\n

By the end of August, the number of hate crimes in the five boroughs was up for the year<\/a> \u2014 by 15%, with 58 additional confirmed incidents this year compared to last, cops said.<\/p>\n

Of the 45 confirmed hate crimes in August, close to half, 19 cases, were antisemitic incidents, cops said.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information regarding these two incidents is urged to call NYPD CrimeStoppers<\/a> at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cops want to question a man who knocked a yarmulke off a 39-year-old man\u2019s head in a potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[53997,75,84,83,9,24,63,103],"class_list":["post-341461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-antisemitic-hate-crimes","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}