A man who police say drove onto a sidewalk and tried to strike pedestrians outside an Orthodox Jewish school in New York City was arrested on Wednesday on charges including attempted murder, reckless driving and hate crimes.
The suspect, Asghar Ali, 58, of Brooklyn, N.Y., yelled antisemitic statements before swerving onto a sidewalk in Brooklyn in a white 2011 Ford Crown Victoria, according to a spokesman for the New York Police Department. The address given by the police matches that of the Mesivta Nachlas Yakov School, an Orthodox Jewish school.
No injuries were reported after the episode, which happened around 11:25 Wednesday morning. The police said that a 41-year-old man, a 44-year-old man and three 18-year-old men had been on the sidewalk and were targeted.
Security camera footage by a neighborhood watch group run by Jewish residents in Flatbush showed a white car being driven onto a sidewalk directly toward men wearing yarmulkes as they fled. When the men ran inside, the driver returned to the road and left, the video showed.
Mr. Ali faces more than a dozen charges, including attempted murder as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, attempted vehicular assault, menacing as a hate crime and reckless driving, the police said.
The police had not released other details about Mr. Ali as of late Wednesday.
Mayor Eric Adams of New York told a local radio station, WINS, that the driver appeared to have been “emotionally disturbed.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said on social media that the New York State Police were coordinating with the New York Police Department on the investigation.
