Police released surveillance video Monday of a fedora-wearing cyclist dressed who roiled the city when he spray-painted swastikas at a Brooklyn yeshiva and a Jewish cemetery just hours after the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor.
The NYPD is asking the public’s help identifying and tracking down the suspect, who was caught in the act in the video.
The brazen suspect, clad in black, started the hate-filled vandalism early Wednesday morning where he approached the Magen David Yeshivah around 6 a.m. at McDonald Ave. and Avenue T in Gravesend and spray-painted spray-painted swastikas in the front of the building.
A security guard at the yeshiva called 911 around 6:30 a.m. after finding two swastikas in red paint on a pillar and window. Two “half swastikas” or “Zs” were also found painted on the yeshiva, which includes an Orthodox Jewish elementary school, police said.
Nearly four hours later, about a mile and a half away, the suspect approached the Washington Cemetery around 9:50 a.m. near McDonald Ave. and Bay Parkway and spray-painted swastikas on construction barriers before fleeing the scene on a bicycle, cops said.
Workers at the cemetery, discovered the vandalism just before 10 a.m.
“This morning at 6 a.m. our community was assaulted,” Gov. Hochul said at a press conference following the incidents. “assaulted by an individual so depraved of heart, so cruel and insensitive, they would dare to violate sacred spaces, the cemetery, a center and a school where children from preschool to 12th grade were gathering in just a few hours.”
“I strongly condemn this hateful display of antisemitism.”
NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force were investigating the incident.
The hate-filled graffiti appeared just hours after Mamdani, who has been criticized for making statements some critics view as antisemitic, had been elected mayor.
“This is a disgusting and heartbreaking act of antisemitism, and it has no place in our beautiful city,” Mamdani said on X. “As Mayor, I will always stand steadfast with our Jewish neighbors to root the scourge of antisemitism out of our city.”
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).
