Man arrested on hate crime charges during Israel-Palestine protests
A Staten Island man was arrested on hate crime charges Wednesday for allegedly throwing a firework at a woman from a pickup truck in Manhattan’s Diamond District during pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests, police said.
The NYPD said on Twitter that Mohammed Othman, 24, was arrested for hurling a firework that struck a 55-year-old woman from the back of a pickup truck on May 20, cops said.
The woman was treated at Bellevue Hospital for burns to her lower back and released, cops said.
Police said Othman was also charged with two other incidents from the same protest.
He was hit with first-degree gang assault as a hate crime, third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree reckless endangerment as a hate crime, cops said.
Othman has at least six prior arrests. He was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana in 2016, criminal possession of marijuana in 2017, possession of a forged instrument in 2019 and domestic violence with strangulation in 2020.
He was arrested on two separate complaints on Feb. 22, 2021, according to police.
He was arrested for criminal mischief after he got into an argument with his brother and broke a window with a mug, police said.
He was also arrested after he had a fight with a private sanitation truck driver and charged with driving without a license and possession of psychedelic mushrooms, cops said. He was also driving with an open container of alcohol, police said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Othman had an attorney.
Three more arrests:
Three people have been arrested for a second caught-on-camera attack during the dueling protests.
About 30 minutes after the woman was burned, a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators jumped Joseph Borgen, who was beaten and pepper-sprayed near the corner of W. 48th St. and Seventh Ave. At least three other suspects remain at large, officials said.
Borgen, who lives in Lawrence, said he was on his way to the pro-Israel rally when a group of men attacked him, screaming, “You dirty Jew, f--k Israel, go back to your country!’”
Waseem Awawdeh, 23, of Brooklyn, was arrested shortly after the attack and accused of hitting the Long Island man with a pair of crutches. Faisal Elezzi, 25, was arrested on May 24 outside his Staten Island home after police received a Crime Stoppers tip identifying him as one of the attackers. Mahmoud Musa, 23, of Staten Island, was arrested on June 8 and was charged with gang assault and assault as a hate crime.
The clash between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protesters came the same day Israel and Hamas announced a ceasefire ending an 11-day conflict that saw more than 250 dead, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
Cops trying to separate the protesters arrested 25 men and a woman for offenses including unlawful assembly, obstructing government assembly, disorderly conduct and criminal possession of a weapon.
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