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CBS

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn, New York rabbi is speaking out after a scary encounter with a man accused of snatching his yarmulke off his head.

Rabbi Uria Ohana's crash course on street justice — and the justice — system continues.

Rabbi Alleges Bias Attack In NYC Subway Station

CBS

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn, New York rabbi is speaking out after a scary encounter with a man accused of snatching his yarmulke off his head.

Rabbi Uria Ohana’s crash course on street justice — and the justice — system continues.

“I got a call from the district attorney,” Ohana said. “I’m going to testify in front of the grand jury.”

The case is against 18-year old Ali Hussein, accused of snatching Ohana’s yarmulke last week inside a park slope subway station. It was an offense Ohana says he couldn’t let pass.

“I decided to chase him to get my yarmulke back,” Ohana said.

Prosecutors haven’t classified the incident as a bias crime yet, but a Brooklyn, New York resident who spoke to CBS Station WCBS-TV in New York says he’s not encouraged by what happened.

“It’s unfortunate that these two cultures that don’t get along a world away … even here in Brooklyn … are not getting along,” Brooklyn resident Miguel Yazinsky said.

Rabbi Ohana says as he ran back down the station’s stairs two of Hussein’s friends got up from this bench and chased him out of the station.

“They were screaming ‘Allah Akhbar (God is great) and punching my face,” Ohana said.

But Ohana says things came to a head when Hussein was hit by a car as he ran out onto Fourth Avenue. EMS officials confirm responding to a call at that time and location for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle.

At the subway station, WCBS-TV found little sympathy for Hussein.

“So you’re trying to say the guy who grabbed it got hit by a car? That’s justice, isn’t it?” Brooklyn resident Kevin Ryan said.

Not for Rabbi Ohana, who says despite the fact Hussein was injured, he still wants him prosecuted to fullest extent of the law.

Hussein is charged with grand larceny, petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Prosecutors expect more charges will be filed.

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7 Comments

  • reader

    The New York Post was the first major media to report this news story. Their source-Crown Heights.info after a reader called them when seeing it on your site. (Although the New York Post left out some important details and said that the perp was “chased into the street”.)

  • boruch hoffinger

    B”H
    Rabbi Uria Ohana — kol hakovod! This will scare other perps. from doing the same thing.
    Hashem should protect you.
    A non-Jew who steals a ‘pruta’ (5 cents according to Rav M. Feinstein, ZT’L) is chaiv misa. Even beshogayg.

  • boruch hoffinger

    B’H
    Miguel Yazinsky said that the two cultures don’t get along.
    False!
    We want to get along with them but the opposite isn’t true.