Attack Outside Sunset Park Mosque Not a Hate Crime: NYPD

Pictured: The site of the Madine Muslim Community Center. Image via Google Maps

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Two teenagers were brutally beaten outside a Sunset Park mosque early Sunday morning, but the NYPD is not treating the incident as a hate crime.

On Monday, an NYPD spokeswoman provided Patch with an account of the attack based on victim testimony and an ongoing police investigation.

According to police, at about 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, a 40-year-old woman was waiting in a car for her boyfriend at the northwest corner of 3rd Avenue and 53rd Street in Sunset Park, which is near the Madine Muslim Community Center.

Two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, approached the vehicle and tried to enter it, the spokeswoman said. At that point, the woman's boyfriend approached the vehicle and assaulted both teens.

DNAinfo reported that a suspect had been identified. The news site was also told by police that the teens had been "flirting" with the assailant's girlfriend prior to the attack.

The spokeswoman told Patch that the NYPD is not treating the attack as a hate crime, adding that no arrests had been made as of Monday night.

Such accounts, however, are markedly different from one provided to Buzzfeed news by Mohamed Bahe, who directs the mosque.

Bahe told Buzfeed that the boys "saw a suspicious car parked outside of our entrance." Their suspicion, he reportedly said, was due to past incidents of prostitution and drug use in the area.

The teens approached the car, Bahe said, saw the woman inside, and "they asked if she needed help. Then all of a sudden a guy comes across running from the street and punches him and knocks him down."

In addition, Bahe told Buzzfeed that the attacker yelled "You f*cking terrorist" as he assaulted the first of the two boys, basing that on the testimony of the second victim.

Buzzfeed published a surveillance video of the attack showing two boys outside the car, one on foot and one on a bike. As the biker rides away, a man approaches and punches the boy on foot, after which he kicks and punches him repeatedly in the street.

At that point, the biker rides back into the camera frame, and is chased out of view by the attacker.

A community group called Muslims Giving Back published photos on Facebook showing a significant amount of blood on a car's hood, as well as wounds on the face of one of the boys.

"2 of our young community members and volunteers just got attacked outside our masjid after prayers," the Facebook post read. "One had a concussion after the attacker repeatedly kicked him in the face. The attacker ran away after some of our members chased him. One of the victims heard the attacker shout "Terrorist!" while being punched to the ground. This is absolutely a HATE crime. We are urging our community, our activists, our leaders, to help us make sure the NYPD 72nd precinct files this as a hate crime and catch the perpetrator."

According to both Buzzfeed and the Sunset Park Voice, the mosque had requested additional security during Ramadan, but had not received it. The sites reported that Captain Emmanuel Gonzalez, the head of the NYPD's 72nd Precinct (which covers Sunset Park) had visited the mosque to apologize for not stationing more officers there.