Maniac pummels rabbi in unprovoked NYC attack – minutes after slugging stranger pumping gas: cops
A maniac beat up a rabbi in an unprovoked Brooklyn attack late Wednesday – just minutes after he allegedly punched another stranger who was pumping gas nearby, authorities said.
Eric Avrutov, 31 – who has five prior arrests, including for a similar assault two days earlier – allegedly cornered the 66-year-old religious leader without warning and dealt multiple blows on Dahill Road near Cortelyou Road in Kensington around 9:20 p.m., according to cops and video released by the Boro Park Shomrim patrol.
The victim went to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Police quickly responded and handcuffed Avrutov after the senseless attack that lasted about 20 seconds, the video shows.
He was charged with assault, criminal obstruction of breathing and harassment, police said.
The violent act is not being treated as a hate crime – but it was allegedly Avrutov’s second unprovoked assault of the night, according to the NYPD.
About five minutes before he targeted the rabbi, Avrutov allegedly slugged another man, 60, on the side of the face as he pumped gas at the Shell station around the corner on Cortelyou Road, police said.
He was charged with assault and harassment in that attack, authorities said.
His arraignments on those cases were pending Thursday evening.
Avrutov last found himself in cuffs when he allegedly punched a 23-year-old man and 22-year-old woman in the face at random at Brighton 12th Street and Brighton Beach Avenue around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, police said.
But Judge Duane Frankson had no choice but to grant him supervised release because the top charge against him – misdemeanor assault – was not eligible for bail, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
Avrutov was also arrested on Sunday for allegedly showing up at his grandmother’s Brooklyn home in violation of an order of protection back in June, and charged with criminal contempt, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors asked that he be held on $2,500 cash bail or $5,000 bond, but Frankson again cut him loose on supervision, according to the DA’s office.
Avrutov’s record also includes a gun possession rap from 2024, one criminal trespass arrest and another bust for violating an order of protection, police said.
While Avrutov’s attack on the rabbi was not believed to be a hate crime, another Jewish New Yorker was targeted in Brooklyn Wednesday night as well.
A sex offender, Devin Best, 48, chased a Jewish student at knifepoint in Crown Heights around 2:50 a.m. Wednesday – before snarling “Hail f–king Hitler” as the victim escaped the terrifying encounter, according to cops and video.
City Hall slammed the disturbing attacks.
“The attacks on two Jewish New Yorkers in Crown Heights and Boro Park on Wednesday night — during the High Holiday season — are horrifying and reprehensible. I’m grateful to the NYPD officers who swiftly apprehended the two suspects,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement.
“Every New Yorker deserves to live free from harassment and violence. Our administration will continue to deploy a broad range of interventions to protect Jewish New Yorkers and root out antisemitism and hate in all its forms.”
- Admin
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