NYPD: 12-year-old boy charged with hate crime in connection with disturbing videotaped attack on Jewish boys in New York

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From Joe Marino And Amanda Woods

A 12-year-old boy was charged Wednesday with a hate crime in an incident that occurred in Brooklyn earlier this month and was captured on video in which two Hasidic Jewish boys his age were beaten, according to law enforcement sources.

The underage boy was arrested late Wednesday morning and charged with aggravated harassment and assault – both hate crimes – in connection with the attack on the boys on the evening of May 12 at the corner of Franklin and Myrtle avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant, authorities said.

The Jewish boys were among a group of about a dozen boys playing outside an apartment building on Franklin Avenue near Myrtle Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant shortly before 9 p.m. when the young suspect, who was riding a Citi Bike, ambushed them, according to a video obtained by Williamsburg 365 News.

“In the video, we see him driving back and forth on the sidewalk past this group of boys,” NYPD Chief of Investigations Joseph Kenny told reporters at a press conference last week. “They're taking up the entire sidewalk. So there was some sort of interaction between the perpetrator, who appears to be either a light-skinned black or Hispanic male, and the Hasidic children.”

“He gets off his bike, walks up to the group, says, 'Get off the sidewalk,' and then starts attacking the two boys while the rest of the group runs for safety,” Kenny added.

According to the clip, the attacker pushed one child to the ground before throwing another onto the sidewalk and kicking and stomping on him.

The victims suffered minor cuts on the back of the head.

The youth who was handcuffed on Wednesday will face charges because he is still a minor, the same sources said.

The police initially stated that the suspect had not made any specifically anti-Semitic statements.

It was not immediately clear why hate crime charges were filed, although the department said after the incident that its hate crimes task force was investigating the case.