Police have identified a person of interest in the smashing of a storefront window at a Bushwick synagogue early Saturday morning. According to the NYPD, security camera footage from neighboring businesses captured a man in a black hoodie near Chabad of Bushwick immediately after the incident:
Around 2 a.m. on Saturday, congregants of Chabad of Bushwick, a synagogue on Flushing Avenue, were wrapping up Shabbat dinner when they heard a crash from the storefront. Rabbi Menachem Heller rushed out to see what had caused the commotion, and found the window shattered by what police later called an "unknown object." Heller said that he saw two men looking through the hole at him, but they ran away.
Speaking to the NY Post, Heller described the episode as "very shocking and scary."
"I would like to say this wasn't anti-Semitism, but I'm doubtful," Heller said. "We are one of four storefronts that look exactly the same [on that part of Flushing], and three were lit up the same way. Ours happened to be the one that was hit, on a Friday night, no less."
Across the city, hate crimes—anti-Semitic hate crimes in particular—have risen steadily in recent years, spiking 6 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, while incidents involving swastikas increased by 76 percent between 2016 and 2018. Police have been investigating the vandalism at Chabad of Bushwick as a bias-motivated event.
Initially, the NYPD sought two suspects, and at this time, police seek the man depicted above for questioning only. Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
