A young man was arrested Monday for the antisemitic attack on an Orthodox Jewish man in Brooklyn less than a week ago.
Armani Charles, 23, was charged with assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, and menacing as a hate crime for the Dec. 16 attack on 35-year-old Elias Rosner, cops said.
Charles flew into an antisemitic tirade after crossing paths with Rosner, who was leaving a Crown Heights synagogue at Kingston Ave. and Lincoln Place alongside a group of other congregants around 4 p.m., police said.
“We were just crossing the street when he started ranting at all of us,” Rosner told the Daily News. “He said if the Holocaust was successful we wouldn’t be here today and how he wanted to kill a Jew today and he couldn’t wait to do it. I looked at him like he had two heads growing out of his shoulders and he started going off (on me).”
The suspect zeroed in on Rosner because “I was the only one to look him in the eye,” the victim said.
Video of the clash shared on social media shows Rosner wearing a tan shirt and a lime green hat as he fights off the stranger, who walks off down the street. For a few moments, Rosner follows the suspect, the video shows. During a second exchange between the two men a few moments later, the attacker pulls a knife and stabs Rosner in the chest just above his heart.
“I was able to defend myself just fine,” Rosner said.
Cops recovered images of the suspect from surveillance cameras, and on Wednesday they released footage of the suspect, who was sporting cornrows and a black-and-white jacket with the word “Genuine” on the back.
Charles was awaiting arraignment Monday night.
