A Hasidic Jewish man in New York City was left with a broken leg after a car crashed into him in a hit-and-run, as police say the incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
The car struck the victim, 55, as he was crossing the street at Albany Avenue and Union Street in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn after 5 p.m. on Friday, according to New York City police.
The vehicle, a 2017 Mercedes Benz, was traveling southbound on Albany Avenue and was making a left turn when it collided with the victim.
Surveillance video shows the vehicle slam into the man without stopping, throwing the victim onto the ground and driving on.
The driver fled the scene and the pedestrian was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
The crash broke the victim's leg, NBC New York reported.
So far no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Police said the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force has been notified.
Residents in the area expressed concern over the incident, some saying they believed the crash was not an accident.
“You can see from the video, didn’t seem like an accident to me. Got to be safe,” Usher Berkovich, who lives nearby, said to NBC New York. “As a Jew, I feel like I have to be more careful and crime has been up especially on the Jewish community.”
According to the NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard, which has data running through the end of September 2022, there were 469 hate crime incidents reported last year, 195 of which targeting Jewish people, and 506 arrests.