A 25-year-old man with a criminal history was arrested and charged with a hate crime for allegedly firing BB pellets at a Jewish father and son outside a kosher Staten Island market over the weekend, police announced Tuesday.
Jason Kish was charged with assault as a hate crime, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child over the Sunday attack that came amid a rash of Anti-Semitic hate crimes across the Big Apple.
Kish allegedly drove past the pair, who were wearing yamulkas and other traditional Jewish garbs, and fired shots from the driver’s side window, police said. The duo was returning a shopping cart in front of the Kosher Island market in Meiers Corners when they were attacked.
Surveillance video captured the moment the 7-year-old boy was clipped in the ear. He ducks, covers his head and looks at his father in confusion. His father, who was struck in the chest, lets go of the cart and tends to his son as the drive-by shooter speeds off. They were both treated for minor injuries.
Police began canvassing for Kish’s Mustang as soon as the crime was reported, Detective bureau chief Michael Baldassano said Tuesday. Kish was pulled over about an hour into the search, ID’d and released.
After reviewing the security footage of the shooting and comparing it to bodycam footage of Kish being pulled over, police realized both Mustangs had the same distinctive marking, Baldassano said.
Ring footage taken from a home a few blocks away from the kosher market also captured Kish allegedly holding a pellet gun out the window of his mustang.
“A father and son, simply going to the store to buy groceries for their families, like I did the day before in my neighborhood, were shot at by someone who was acting — we believe and we will allege in court — out of hatred,” Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon said at a press conference Tuesday.
“And while we thank God that no one was seriously injured, this violent incident underscores the alarming increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes that we see, and from its rhetoric, in our country, in our city, in our state.”
Anti-Semitic hate crimes jumped 125% in November compared to the same month last year, stats show.
There have been 278 reported anti-Semitic attacks this year, a 52.7% increase from the same period last year, NYPD data shows.
“You have to think about the impact of this,” Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday. “No severe injury, but emotionally the severity is real.”
“That young man may never walk that street again without thinking about that incident.”
Kish has had other run-ins with the law; he’s been previously charged with petty larceny and menacing.
Adams encouraged New Yorkers to not only report crimes and provide information to police, but to create posters to show that the city is against discrimination.
“We are not going to allow hate to run our city,” Adams said.
