A motorist jumped a curb and tried to mow down people outside an Orthodox Jewish school in New York City on Wednesday, authorities said.
The driver of a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria yelled antisemitic words as his car left the road and went toward people on the sidewalk near East 56th Street and Glenwood Road a little before 11:25 a.m. in Brooklyn, New York police said in a statement.
Security video showed at least two people, wearing yarmulkes and long black garments, running for cover and away from the oncoming car.
Ali Asghar, 58, was arrested and charged with a slew of offenses, including second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, officials said.
It wasn't immediately clear Thursday whether Asghar had hired or been assigned a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
Mesivta Nachlas Yakov School student Chaim Moskowitz, 17, saw the car coming at him Wednesday.
"I was very scared, didn't know what was next," Moskowitz told NBC News on Thursday.
Even before Wednesday's incident, Moskowitz said, he kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary around his school and neighborhood.
"You do think about this," he said. "I'm scared every time I walk."
He said he's still "shaken up" by Wednesday's close call and thanked police for their quick arrest.
City Council member Farah Louis called the incident in her district a "senseless act of bigotry and violence."
"No group or community should live in fear of violence, discrimination, or intimidation, and we must address the rising trend of antisemitism to prevent such hateful acts in the future," she said in statement.
A representative for the school could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
The incident occurred about two weeks after someone kicked and punched two Hasidic Jewish boys who were playing on Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn, about 5½ miles north of the scene of the car attack, police said.
A 12-year-old suspect was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment as hate crimes.
