Police release surveillance video of the shocking Brooklyn Heights hate crime
Police from the 84th Precinct blocked off the front of the Mansion House co-op building on Hicks Street with crime scene tape and stood guard at the entrance. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — The New York Police Department has released surveillance video and photos of a group of individuals suspected of vandalizing the Brooklyn Heights home of the president of the Brooklyn Museum on Wednesday.
The suspects had splattered the walls, windows, walkway and front door of the Mansion House co-op building at 145 Hicks St. with red paint, and hung a sign calling board President Anne Pasternak, who is Jewish, a “White-supremacist Zionist.” The homes of other Jewish board members of the Brooklyn Museum were also defaced across the city Wednesday morning.
NYPD is calling the vandalism, which shocked the quiet neighborhood, a “hate crime criminal mischief incident.”
The surveillance video shows five individuals, wearing dark clothing and masks, walking along the street. At least two appear to be carrying plastic bags. Police provided freeze-frame photos of several of the suspects.
According to the police report, the group entered the courtyard of the Mansion House at roughly 2:25 a.m. Wednesday and then “engaged in criminal mischief” before fleeing on foot.
Related Article: Antisemitic vandalism defaces home of Brooklyn Museum’s Pasternak in Brooklyn Heights
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visit the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.
The building damage appears to be part of an escalation by a pro-Palestinian group that has been protesting at the museum, which the group connects to Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza. The group “Within Our Lifetime” is demanding that the institution divest from any investments linked to Israel’s campaign. Dozens were recently arrested after damaging some artwork in the museum’s lobby.
Neighbors, the Brooklyn Heights Association and elected officials including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) denounced the exhibition of virulent antisemitism.
“I come to the floor this morning sick to my stomach and profoundly disturbed by pictures that were shared with me … of yet another antisemitic act in New York,” Schumer said Wednesday in a speech at the U.S. Senate. “Jewish Americans made to feel unsafe in their own home – just because they are Jewish.”
A company specializing in emergency restoration was brought in by the co-op on Wednesday afternoon to remove the oil-based paint front the facade and windows of the building.
