Brooklyn Head Punch Now Investigated as Hate Crime: NYPD

Police said Sunday they were investigating a sidewalk assault in Brooklyn as a hate crime.

The victim, a 32-year-old man, was talking to friends in Williamsburg on Friday evening when a man ran up to the group and punched him in the head from behind, police said.

The victim Jewish and wearing a shtreimel, a fur hat worn by some Hasidic Jewish men. He had been standing on Throop Avenue at Wallabout Street.

The Anti-Defamation League offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Man Punched on Williamsburg Street: NYPD

“We remain increasingly concerned by the number of alleged unprovoked assaults on Orthodox Jewish individuals in Brooklyn in recent weeks,” said Evan R. Bernstein, regional director of ADL for New York and New Jersey.

Video shows a man running up from behind and punching him in the head, then running away.

Police said the attacker yelled "BLAH!"

The investigation is ongoing.

Last weekend, a boy wearing Hasidic clothing was beaten by a man in an apparently unprovoked attack just a block from Friday's attack, police say.

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