A Jewish safety volunteer who accused a knife-wielding, poster-ripping woman of attacking him in Brooklyn last month has since been charged with punching her in the arm and calling her a terrorist during the same incident, The Post has learned.
Mark Pomerantz, a Shmira Public Safety volunteer, said he confronted the woman — Melissa Ugur, 20 — as she sliced up Israeli hostage posters on Nov. 4 in Midwood and asked why she was destroying the signs.
That’s when Ugur allegedly exploded into a storm of antisemitic vitriol, and unleashed pepper spray in the 52-year-old father of three’s face, he told The Post.
She was arrested and charged with assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
But the story didn’t end there.
Pomerantz himself was arrested on Nov. 15 on allegations he screamed at Ugur that she was a terrorist, then crossed the street and punched her in the arm, according to the complaint against him.
He denied the charges, telling The Post it was “definitely a false claim.”
“I kept my hands to myself,” he said Monday, noting that authorities arrested him two weeks after the initial incident.
“The only thing I did do was put my hand up while she was pepper-spraying me to block her from pepper-spraying me, but I never touched her,” he said.
“She Maced me, but I got her Mace,” Pomerantz continued. “I could have Maced her back, and knowing I would have got locked up for this, chances are I would have beat the living daylights out of her for self-defense.”
Pomerantz was collared on a cross complaint based off Ugur’s statements, law enforcement sources said.
Her defense attorney, Caner Demirayak, said Ugur feels vindicated to some degree in light of Pomerantz’s arrest.
“She had been consistent all along that Pomerantz attacked her,” Demirayak told The Post Monday.
He said Pomerantz allegedly called his client a terrorist and said she didn’t deserve to live.
“We have two witnesses to confirm that Pomerantz assaulted her, which have been provided to the prosecutor,” Demirayak said. “Pomerantz punched Melissa Ugur, and she pepper-sprayed in response. He did not merely put his hand up.”
The fight happened as hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers skyrocket in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas, with a whopping 214% surge in antisemitic incidents in October, the NYPD said last month.
Days after the altercation, Pomerantz told The Post that Ugur denied Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault ever happened, then seethed, “I’ll kill you Jews,” before she went off on him near the corner of East 22nd Street and Avenue N in Midwood.
“As she was cutting the papers, she said, ‘Oh, and you’re a Jew?’” he recounted in a phone interview. “She said, ‘See how I’m slicing these papers? That’s how I’ll slice up all you Jews and kill you.’”
After flinging some more antisemitic slurs, she pulled out a can of pepper spray and unleashed it on him, Pomerantz said.
“She sprayed me for absolutely no reason,” he added on Monday. “I didn’t say anything derogatory … I never said anything about her country, her beliefs or anything like that. At the time when this all took place, I thought she looked like a minor.”
When asked why he thinks he found himself in bracelets, Pomerantz implied it was because the arresting officer, Yosef M. Aisaa, was Muslim.
“I never thought I’d get locked up because I know I never touched her,” Pomerantz said Monday. “None of that happened. None of that sort.”
“[The detective] is a Muslim,” he continued. “I don’t know if there’s any connection, whether she knew someone on the inside or in the police department … it’s pretty funny how the detective that locked me up is a Muslim detective.”
Police sources ripped Pomerantz’s claims as baseless, and said his arrest had nothing to do with the officer’s religion.
Pomerantz — who the sources said has one previous arrest for a domestic dispute from February 2018 — was charged with third-degree assault, menacing, attempted assault and harassment for his actions that day, according to the complaint.
He was released without bail at his Brooklyn Criminal Court arraignment and is due back in court Jan. 25.
Ugur was also freed without bail and her next court date is Jan. 18. This was her first arrest, sources said.
Her attorney said he believed the charges against her would be “disposed of favorably,” but added, “We have no expectations, however, and no promises have been made.”
“The evidence available made this obvious, and required the NYPD to act,” Demirayak continued. “However, we are disappointed at the jump to place all the blame on her immediately.”
Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Amanda Woods
