NYPD arrest suspect in antisemitic beating of Jewish man with metal bat

The New York Police Department on Wednesday arrested a man in the beating of a Jewish victim with a metal bat after the suspect made antisemitic comments on Monday.

Obidiah Lashley, 29, was charged with a hate crime, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, aggravated harassment, and menacing.

The 25-year-old victim suffered lacerations on the back of his head and was taken by ambulance to Staten Island University Hospital.

According to Hamodia, the suspect had allegedly demanded from the victim “how do you know you’re Jewish?” and called him a “dirty Jew.”

A man with the same name and birth year as Lashley was arrested for allegedly swinging a pick-axe on the A subway train in 2022, Fox News reported at the time. In 2016, the Daily News reported a Lashley with the same birth year as the suspect arrested for assaulting a man when he wouldn’t buy a scalped ticket for the Staten Island Ferry. A 17-year-old with the same name and appearance as Lashley was arrested in 2012 for attempted burglary of a Woodmere home, the Long Island Herald had reported.

The American Jewish Committee thanked the police for investigating the incident as a hate crime in a social media post on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the NYPD also appealed to the public regarding an October 17 incident in which a suspect made antisemitic statements to a 13-year-old boy before spitting in his face.