Police arrested Asghar Ali, 58, a Pakistani immigrant cab driver, for allegedly trying to mow down Jewish students and a rabbi in Brooklyn.
Witnesses claim Ali yelled, “I’m gonna kill all the Jews.”
https://twitter.com/AvivaKlompas/status/1795949372015771965?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Rabbi Twersky, who works at the yeshiva, said Ali tried to hit one student “at the corner of Glenwood Road and East 55th Street.”
Then Ali went the wrong way on 56th Street and tried to run down 30 to 40 students outside.
From The New York Post:
The Brooklyn man faces more than a dozen charges including attempted murder, attempted assault and hate crimes charges.Cops do not believe the attack is terror-related and on Wednesday night did not have evidence he was tied to radical groups online, according to sources.The man was driving a 2011 white Crown Victoria and making a turn onto East 55th Street in front of the Mesivta Nachlas Yakov School when he suddenly veered toward students dressed in Orthodox garb, according to the NYPD and video footage.He then drove around the block and back toward the school — this time targeting two more students standing outside and a rabbi.“I’m gonna kill all the Jews,” the driver allegedly seethed, according to police.The victims managed to find safety in the building, which also has as dorms, the clip showsNo one was hurt in the attack, cops said. Authorities listed five victims in the case: a trio of 18-year-olds, a 41-year-old man and a 44-year-old man.
The Shomrim Safety Patrol found Ali. They immediately called the NYPD:
“We were able to retrieve the video footage. We got the guy’s plate number,” Bob Moskovitz, executive coordinator of the patrol, told The Post. “Obviously it was a very distinct car, a Crown Vic, an old model. You don’t see too many of those around.”“We were told by the people at the school that he hangs around, he drives around the neighborhood,” Moskovitz said. “And one of our members, when he was doing his daily patrol canvassing around the neighborhood, saw the car.”The driver was taken into custody and was transferred to Coney Island Hospital, sources said.
Ali has stayed at hospital psych wards at least three times before the attack. He’s described “as an emotionally disturbed person.”
The driver has been in America for 20 years. Ali’s criminal record spans back to 2007, when authorities took him “to the hospital for evaluation after an incident on Coney Island Avenue.”
The Post couldn’t find information about the incident. But in 2011, the police took him to a psych ward “for acting irrationally and threatening to harm himself.”
More from The Post:
On Sept. 10, 2011, he was reported to be suffering from an unspecified mental illness after a non-violent incident, according to the sources.Then, on Jan. 21, 2023, the sources said Ali was taken to Coney Island Hospital after he was spotted walking around in circles on Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway looking confused.In the most recent incident, the sources said Ali was picked up behaving erratically and threatening people on Coney Island Avenue on Feb. 11, the sources said.
Ali has scared his neighbors numerous times. One told The Post that he doesn’t speak to anyone or even open the front gate for others:
“I see him go to work every morning about seven or eight,” the neighbor said. “I don’t know what kind of work he does. I believe he rents a room in one of these apartments.”Another neighbor said Ali was “like an invisible face” in the building.“He never said hello, not even once,” the 62-year-old local said. “That’s strange. I thought he didn’t want to talk to nobody but now it makes sense. He looked a little bit off, a little bit whacked. He never looked at me. He looked straight and went about his business.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY