Police arrested a 29-year-old man for an alleged hate crime.
The incident occurred outside Westville Synagogue on West Prospect Street Friday morning.
Here’s what happened, according to police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart:
Officers received word of a hate crime and went to the synagogue to speak with someone who told them he’d been threatened outside the synagogue.
He told police that he had just left the synagogue when a man “aggressively approached” him.
“What if I throw this hot coffee in your face, you dirty Ashkenazi Jew?” he said the man told him. “I used to beat your kind in New York.”
The man then lunged at him. The victim ran back inside the synagogue, and called police.
The call came in at 8:27 a.m. Officers went to the synagogue to speak with the victim. They canvassed Westville and found the alleged threatener, a 29-year-old New York man, on the 1200 block of Whalley Avenue.
The suspect is being held on a $10,000 bond on charges of third-degree intimidation based on bigotry/bias and second-degree breach of peace.