RAMAPO – Two incidents that occurred over the last two weeks have resulted in hate crime arrests.
On Friday, April 19, at about 9 p.m., while a 17-year-old was driving a vehicle on Cragmere Road in Ramapo, a 17-year-old passenger in the vehicle fired a water pellet gun at individuals walking on the side of the road. One victim was shot but uninjured.
The vehicle’s occupants yelled anti-Semitic slurs toward the pedestrians and then sped away.
The teenager driver, a resident of Airmont, was charged with a misdemeanor of aggravated harassment.
The following Friday, April 26, at about 9:20 p.m., a continued investigation determined that the same 17-year-old was driving the same vehicle on Oxford Drive in Montebello with three other passengers. An 18-year-old passenger threw trash from the car at pedestrians walking in the roadway, striking a pedestrian on the left. The victim was not injured.
A witness said as the vehicle drove by the vehicle, he car’s occupants all yelled anti-Semitic slurs and fled the scene at a high rate of speed.
The conclusion of the investigation, Ramapo detectives charged all of the vehicle occupants with hate crimes:
- The 17-year-old driver from Airmont was charged with felony reckless endangerment and misdemeanor aggravated harassment. It was the same driver as in the previous incident.
- The 17-year-old passenger from Suffern was charged with aggravated harassment as a misdemeanor. That was the same passenger as in the previous incident.
- Two 18-year-olds, one from Airmont and the other from Hillburn, were each charged with aggravated harassment.
Due to the fact that the crimes were not bail eligible under state bail reform, they were all released with appearance tickets for future court dates.
