Pelham Parkway hate crime victim IDs suspect but says ‘bad police work’ has suspect at-large

If it wasn’t for a plant she was holding, Rochelle Shapiro says she may have suffered severe damage, when a man threw a concrete slab through her second-floor window in Pelham Parkway on April 7. The attack, Shapiro and the NYPD conclude, was a hate crime, as Shapiro adorns a large Israeli flag and other pro-Israel sentiments in the window of her 2121 Matthews Ave. home.

When Shapiro was attacked at approximately 2:45 p.m., she said the nearby 49th Precinct took more than an hour and a half to respond, prompting Shapiro’s daughter to chase the perpetrator from a nearby 2165 Matthews Ave. mosque through the streets of Morris Park, snapping photos of him. Shapiro told the Bronx Times that the suspect ran into the mosque following the incident, changed his clothes and then headed back out where her daughter began following him.

The Bronx Times reached out to the Gulzar e Madinah Masjid mosque for more information on the suspect, and is awaiting a response.

Across the street from Shapiro’s apartment is ongoing construction at 2138 Matthews Ave., where Shapiro said her attacker grabbed the concrete slab from.

“My daughter chased him to the point where she knows where he lives, what he looked like. We did more detective work than the police station that’s only eight blocks away and couldn’t come for over an hour and a half,” said Shapiro.

When it came time for Shapiro to identify the man on April 14 — who is described as a Middle Eastern man with long hair and in his late 20s — in a police lineup, she said she positively ID’d him. However, it did not lead to an arrest.

Shapiro, who alleges that the suspect was acting suspiciously by her apartment days prior to the attack, expressed dismay at the NYPD’s handling of the incident, given the amount of evidence — including a surveillance video of the attack — that was provided to police.

“I had two detectives come (Thursday) night to have me and my daughter pick him out of a lineup, and I got him within two seconds. But he’s still free? They told me that they couldn’t arrest him, even though he could have nearly killed me,” said Shapiro. “All these perpetrators are running rampant like the rats of New York.”

NYPD officials told the Bronx Times on Friday that its Hate Crimes Unit is conducting an ongoing investigation, and that the attack was most likely spurred by a “wherever we stand, we stand with Israel” sign in Shapiro’s window.

Police, however, did not release any further information on the suspect — including his name — due to the investigation. Police have labeled the incident as criminal mischief, which is a class B felony, and carries a minimum prison sentence, without a prior felony conviction, of 1-3 years in prison.

In 2023, there have been 111 incidents that the NYPD has classified as hate crimes, with 60 such incidents inflicted upon New York’s Jewish communities. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League shows antisemitic crimes were up nationwide by 39% in 2022 compared to 2021. New York state led the list with 580 reported incidents, with two-thirds of such incidents taking place within the five boroughs.

In 2022, 42 reported hate crimes occurred in the Bronx, but only 13 of those led to an arrest, according to analysis of police data. Prior to Passover, which began April 5, the NYPD announced that it was “heightening” efforts to combat hate crimes in the Jewish community.

“I want people to know we had to do our own police work, we did the job for them, and they still couldn’t find a way to make an arrest,” said Shapiro. “I’m a taxpaying citizen, like any other person, and part of my taxes goes for police protection, and they can’t offer me anything but a piece of paper or an order of protection, which doesn’t do anything to prevent something from happening again.”

Ali Hatem, who moved to the Pelham Parkway neighborhood and attends the Matthews Avenue mosque, says the neighborhood is a quiet one, and that he was shocked by the attack. Hatem said that global Arab-Israeli conflicts — which trace back to Arab League countries’ support of the Palestinians in their own longstanding conflicts with Israel — transcends neighborhoods and localities into hateful acts.

“I hope in my heart, I don’t pray with someone who would do that. Our book preaches loves, preaches tolerance, and most importantly, condemns a hateful heart,” said Hatem, who lives in Indian Village. “I hope that whoever did this, finds the peace within himself to turn himself in and do the right thing.”