Brooklyn, NY – Thompson Announces Hate Crime Charges In Barclay’s Center Attack

New York – A Brooklyn assemblyman is applauding the Kings County district attorney’s office for classifying an October attack on a Jewish community leader as a hate crime.

As previously reported on VIN News, Leonard Petlakh was attacked outside Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center, with his assailant shouting anti-Semitic slurs, reportedly telling his victim “You are child murderers.” Petlakh sustained a broken nose and severe lacerations in the attack, which took place in front of his two young children.

Shawn Schraeder, who took part in an anti-Israel demonstration that disrupted the exhibition game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Maccabi Tel Aviv, was arrested ten days later and charged with assault in the third degree. Assemblyman Steven Cymborwitz urged District Attorney Thompson to further investigate the incident as a bias attack.

Following an eight month investigation, Thompson’s office began a grand jury proceeding and announced a six count indictment against Schraeder today, which included a hate crime charge.

In a statement released to the media, Cymborwitz lauded the District Attorney for sending a strong message perpetrators of acts of hatred and bigotry will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“Many thanks to Brooklyn D.A. Thompson for pursuing this investigation and finding just cause to charge the suspect not just for the assault but for the anti-Semitic hatred that both precipitated and accompanied it,” Assemblyman Cymbrowitz said. “There is ample evidence that Mr. Schraeder did not attend the game as a spectator but as an instigator turned thug, and he deserves the harshest penalty the law allows for this type of crime.”