Grand jury indicts ‘Free Palestine’ assailants in Brooklyn on multiple hate crime charges: Report

The attacks were among several anti-Semitic outrages in the New York area that accompanied pro-Palestinian demonstrations during Operation Guardian of the Walls.

By The Algemeiner

The three suspects arrested in connection with two ugly antisemitic attacks in Brooklyn last month have reportedly been indicted by a grand jury on a total of 64 charges.

Danial Shaukat, 20, Haider Anjam, 20, and Ashan Azad 19, all of Brooklyn, were indicted Monday on charges that included assault, menacing, attempted assault and aggravated harassment. Many of the counts were charged as hate crimes, the Orthodox newspaper Hamodia reported on Tuesday.

In their first attack on May 22, the trio accosted two Orthodox Jewish men on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn on Saturday evening, during Shabbat. After pulling up alongside the victims in a blue Toyota, Shaukat and one of the other men jumped out of the car with a cricket bat to pummel and choke their targets when they refused to say, “Free Palestine.”

About five minutes later, Shaukat, Azad and Anjam chased four other Orthodox Jewish men, while shrieking, “Kill you Jews. Free Palestine,” prosecutors said.

The victims ran for refuge in a synagogue, Agudath Israel of Sixteenth Avenue in Borough Park. Shaukat and one of his cohorts banged on the doors to get inside the sanctuary and then kicked out the passenger window of an Audi vehicle parked outside.

The attacks were among several anti-Semitic outrages in the New York area that accompanied pro-Palestinian demonstrations as Israel and the Hamas terror organization in Gaza renewed armed hostilities.