A trio of hateful attackers was nabbed Friday for randomly assaulting three Jewish victims in separate incidents in less than an hour in Brooklyn last weekend, according to the NYPD and law enforcement sources.
The apparently teenage suspects — whose victims allegedly included a 15-year-old boy and a man walking home from synagogue — were taken into custody and awaiting charges over the broad-daylight assaults, authorities and sources said.
They were not identified.
The violence — under investigation by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force — began around 3:25 p.m. Saturday when the bigots came up to a 40-year-old man as he walked home from his synagogue and pummeled him at East 15th Street and Avenue L in Midwood, cops said.
The suspects took off on a scooter.
They then targeted their second victim, a 15-year-old boy, around 4 p.m. as he walked at Avenue J and East 17th Street in Midwood, according to police.
They punched and kicked the teen before running off, cops said.
A few minutes later, the trio randomly kicked a 27-year-old man who was walking at East 18th Street and Avenue L in the same neighborhood, before bolting again on foot, cops said.
All three victims suffered minor injuries and declined medical attention, cops said.
Police released surveillance photos late Wednesday of the suspects, who appeared to be teen boys, standing inside a bodega.
Reports of bias-based crimes against Jewish victims within the Big Apple have seen a slight uptick so far this year — with 275 such cases reported between Jan. 1 and Sunday, according to the latest NYPD data available.
That marks an approximately 3% increase from the 268 hate crimes targeting Jewish victims that were reported during the same period in 2022, according to the stats.
But the NYPD saw a surge in antisemitic offenses since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in early October.
Overall, hate crimes in the city are down 6.3% year-to-date, with 546 reported so far this year compared to 583 for the same time frame in 2022, the data shows.
