Police Seek Accomplices in Attack on Rabbi

Police are searching for the accomplices of an Arab suspect who has been charged with a hate crime in connection to the assault of a Rabbi on Tuesday in Park Slope, officials said.

The victim, Rabbi Uria Ohana, said the five or six accomplices escaped in a sport utility vehicle after severely beating him in the middle of the street.

The incident began inside a Park Slope subway station on Tuesday at about 6:40 p.m., when the suspect, Ali Hussein, stole a brown yarmulke off of the head of Rabbi Ohana, police said.

Instead of allowing the suspect to steal the yarmulke, Rabbi Ohana, an assistant Rabbi at Wellesley-Weston Chabad Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts, ran after him, he said.

"He was running and I heard laughing. I decided to chase him," Rabbi Ohana, 25, said.

Friends of Mr. Hussein then joined in the pursuit, Rabbi Ohana said.

Once the chase moved outside, a Volvo hit Mr. Hussein, breaking at least one bone in his leg, police said. The friends of Mr. Hussein then began to strike Rabbi Ohana in the face, he said.

Mr. Hussein will be arraigned on hate crime charges in Brooklyn Criminal Court after he is released from the hospital, officials said.