(Trends Wide) — The New York City Police Department has arrested a woman accused of spitting on an 8-year-old Jewish boy outside a Brooklyn synagogue last week, authorities said.
The woman, identified as 21-year-old Christina Darling, is facing multiple charges. Among them, aggravated harassment as a hate crime, action harmful to a child and threat, the New York police said Friday. Trends Wide has not been able to determine if Darling has legal representation.
The incident occurred last Friday when the woman allegedly approached three children outside the Kehal Tiferes Avrohom Ziditshov Orthodox synagogue. Police said she yelled “anti-Jewish statements” before spitting on a child and walking away.
The children were not injured, police said.
The Jewish boy’s father recounts the incident
The children’s father, Aryah Fried, told Trends Wide affiliate WCBS that the woman said, “Something to the effect that Hitler should have killed them all.”
Fried said her son responded to the woman by saying that he would save his little sister. Which, he said, caused the suspect to spit in his face and say, “We’ll kill them all, I know where they live and we’ll make sure we catch them all next time.”
Several Jews have been attacked across the United States in the past year. Some incidents were related to violent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians outside Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque in May.
A day after the incident in New York, a man interrupted a Saturday Shabbat service at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, holding four people hostage for several hours. Over the past week, Jewish communities across the country have been vigilant by increasing security at synagogues and Jewish Community Centers.
