Arab-American teen in New York attacked with a baseball bat
An Arab-American teenager in New York was assaulted with a baseball bat earlier this month in what the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling “an anti-immigrant, anti-Arab, and racially charged attack.”
“This brazen attack on a teenager is disturbing and has no place in our city,” said Ahmed Mohamed, the legal director of the organization’s New York chapter in a statement on Wednesday. “No one should be attacked or live in fear because of their race or ethnicity. The assailant made his motives very clear and the NYPD needs to open a hate crime investigation.”
CAIR-NY identified the victim as Tarek Elsayed, an 18-year-old Egyptian-American.
The teen was attacked in Staten Island by a neighbor over a parking dispute, a police source told CNN.
The man punctured Elsayed’s rear passenger tire and struck him with a baseball bat when he got out of his car to check the damage, CAIR-NY said in a statement.
According to the organization, the attacker also threatened to kill Elsayed and his friends while they waited for the police, using several anti-Arab slurs and telling them to “go back to your country.”
New York Police Department Det. Hubert Reyes told CNN there is no mention of racial epithets in the police report.
Elsayed told CNN that he believes he told police about the epithets.
“It hurt,” Elsayed said about the racial epithets. “It hurt hearing where I come from being used against me because he doesn’t like it.”
Elsayed broke his arm and suffered injuries to the head, according to CAIR-NY.
Police arrived and arrested the neighbor, Emilio Lopez. The 41-year-old man is charged with assault in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and harassment, the NYPD said.
CNN has reached out to Lopez’ attorney, Lance Lazzaro, for comment. Lopez’s next court appearance will be on November 16, in Richmond Criminal Court, according to court documents.
CAIR-NY says it wants the attack investigated as a hate crime.
“The NYPD and District Attorney have an obligation to consider all evidence during an investigation and when charging a suspect,” Mohamed told CNN. “Investigations and charges do not end once a suspect is arrested, and it is routine for prosecutors to add charges once more evidence becomes available to them. There is a plethora of evidence to support a hate crime investigation.”
Clarification: This piece has been updated to clarify Elsayed is Arab-American.
