Hasidic man assaulted in upscale NYC neighborhood

NEW YORK — A Hasidic man was assaulted in Manhattan in an incident being investigated as a potential hate crime.

Shlomy Schwartz, 67, of Brooklyn, was punched in the back of his head Monday afternoon as he was emerging from a subway station on Sixth Avenue, JPUpdate reported.

His alleged assailant, an African-American man with dreadlocks, knocked off Schwartz’s kippah and said, “You want to be first?”

Schwartz ignored the man and continued walking, then called 911 and filed a police report. Officials at the 13th Precinct, where Schwartz filed the report, then notified the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force.

“My father walked out from the train station and was assaulted by a man from behind,” the victim’s son, Chaim Shloem Schwartz, told JPUpdate. “There were a lot of people passing the street at the time of the assault and no one stopped him.”

New York City Council member Corey Johnson, who represents Chelsea, the upscale neighborhood where the incident occurred, said the assault was “truly appalling.”