2 women accused of attacking Jewish woman in Manhattan are charged with hate crimes: NYPD

Police have arrested and charged two women with hate crimes for allegedly attacking a Jewish woman who confronted them on the Upper West Side for taking down posters of missing Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, the NYPD said.

Manhattan resident Mehwish Omer, 26, was arrested Monday and charged with assault and criminal mischief as hate crimes in connection to the Nov. 9 incident. Stephanie Gonzales, 25, of Yonkers, was arrested a week earlier and charged with attempted robbery and assault as a hate crime.

Their attorney information was not immediately available.

According to police, the 41-year-old victim confronted the two women as they were taking down Israeli hostages’ missing person posters from a light pole at the intersection of Riverside Drive and West 82nd Street, while filming the interaction on her phone. That’s when the two women allegedly assaulted the victim, ripping off the Star of David necklace from around her neck, police said.

They also knocked the victim's cell phone out of her hand and onto the ground, damaging it, according to the NYPD. The two then ran away on foot, police said.

Police said the victim suffered minor injuries to her face and neck, but refused medical help at the scene.

The posters of kidnapped Israelis that have wallpapered the city since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel have become a flashpoint throughout the city and around the world .

Reported hate crimes investigated by the department’s Hate Crime Task Force have spiked since the attack, with the NYPD reporting 101 hate crimes for the month of October, a 124% increase compared to 45 reported in October of last year. That jump was led by a 214% spike in anti-Jewish incidents reported to police, going from 22 in October of last year to 69 last month, records show.

Year-to-date through the end of October however, overall hate crimes were down 9% compared to last year, from 531 last year to 485, according to NYPD data.