The 19-year-old accused of beating an Israeli Columbia University student with a stick this week was charged with hate crimes and granted supervised release during her appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, prosecutors said.
Maxwell Friedman, who uses she/her pronouns, was charged with second- and third-degree assault, both hate crimes, in connection with the 6:10 p.m. Wednesday assault of a 24-year-old student in front of the Butler Library on the Morningside Heights campus, according to the criminal complaint and an NYPD account.
Part of the assault was captured on video, according to Deputy District Attorney Alberto Gomez, who pushed for the highest level of supervised release to ensure that Friedman, who lives in Brooklyn but has family out of state, returns to court.
Judge Soma Syed finally accepted supervised release, but at a lower level.
The victim, who spoke to The Columbia Daily Spectator but identified himself only as “IA,” was part of a group that had been posting leaflets at the university about the number of Israeli casualties during the bloody Hamas sneak attack over the weekend. , according to the court document.
Maxwell Friedman, 19, accused of hitting an Israeli Columbia University student with a stick this week, was charged with hate crimes and later granted supervised release.REUTERS
They had also posted a photo of a kidnapped Israeli family in a designated area for the news bulletin, the complaint states.
Friedman began tearing down and breaking several of the signs, before she allegedly made sarcastic comments toward the group.
“Fuck you. Screw all you idiots,” Friedman mocked, according to the complaint.
“I disrespected you. What are you gonna do about it? Do you want to talk about it like adults? If you have a problem, we can fix it right now, family. P.S.”
Friedman then pushed the victim and hit him with a hard wooden object that appeared to be a broomstick, leaving him with a broken finger and a cut, the complaint states.
Friedman was charged with second- and third-degree assault, both hate crimes, in connection with the assault of a 24-year-old student outside Butler Library, according to the criminal complaint and an NYPD account. REUTERS
“This is because I am currently Israeli. Not me for being myself,” the victim told the student newspaper. “It’s because I’m an Israeli who is under a certain kind of threat.”
The student said he will not return to campus in the near future due to concerns for his safety.
IA has also told other Jewish and Israeli classmates that he does not feel safe and has warned them about hostilities on campus as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues.
“We were all a little surprised that this could happen on our own campus, which should be a safe haven,” he told the newspaper.
“We don’t know how to handle the situation, much less that our families and friends are going through the worst nightmare, and mentally we are in the same boat as them,” he continued.
Part of the assault was captured on video, according to Deputy District Attorney Alberto Gomez, who pushed for the highest level of supervised release to ensure Friedman returns to court. REUTERS
“And now we have to deal with the situation that the campus is no longer a safe place for us.”
Friedman was also charged with aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the complaint.
Representatives for Columbia University did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment on Friday.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn