Posted on 01/11/22
| News Source: NY Post
The attacker who slugged a Jewish man for wearing an Israel Defense Forces sweatshirt in Brooklyn was busted Tuesday, cops said.
Suleiman Othman, 27, of Staten Island, was nabbed at 8:50 a.m. Tuesday in connection to the Dec. 26 attack on 21-year-old Blake Zavadsky outside the Foot Locker store on 86th Street near Fifth Avenue.
Othman — who was picked up by the NYPD’s warrant squad after getting a lead on the attacker from the department’s facial recognition unit — was charged with assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment, police and sources said.
Zavadsky was with his friend Ilan Kaganovich, also 21, when two men approached, Zavadsky told The Post a day after the incident.
“They asked us what we were doing in their neighborhood,” Zavadsky said. “They called us ‘dirty Jews.’”
He said they took particular issue with his hoodie that featured the emblem of the Israeli military forces.