NYC woman who tore down hostage flyers ranted ‘I’ll kill you Jews’ before attack, victim says
The knife-wielding woman accused of ripping down posters of Israeli hostages and pepper-spraying a Jewish safety volunteer in Brooklyn last week seethed “I’ll kill you Jews” before attacking, the victim told The Post.
Melissa Ugur, 20, was allegedly slicing up the flyers Saturday afternoon in Midwood when Shmira Public Safety volunteer Mark Pomerantz confronted her and asked why she was taking the posters down.
“Because it’s not true, it never happened,” Ugur replied about the approximately 240 hostages whom Hamas terrorists kidnapped in their surprise attack last month, according to Pomerantz.
The 52-year-old father of three told her he didn’t want any trouble, but explained: “Nobody would hang up posters like that if it wasn’t true.”
Ugur then exploded in an antisemitism-fueled rage, Pomerantz told The Post.
“As she was cutting the papers, she said, ‘Oh and you’re a Jew?'” he recounted in a phone interview.
“She said, ‘See how I’m slicing these papers? That’s how I’ll slice up all you Jews and kill you.'”
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Pomerantz asked her if she was threatening him while she allegedly continued spewing antisemitic vitriol.
“She goes, ‘I’ll kill you Jews’ and ‘Dirty Jews.’ She kept going on and on and stated ‘Allahu Akbar’ and Muhammad,” he said, moments before she unleashed pepper spray in his face.
After blasting him, Ugur ran but was collared by police after a few Shmira members were called for backup and helped Pomerantz chase her down, he said.
“They’re kidnapping and I pepper-sprayed him!” Ugur, of Brooklyn, bizarrely ranted as cops led her into the back of a police car, video obtained by The Post shows.
She was charged with assault, menacing, and criminal possession of a weapon.
At her arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Sunday, a judge released her without bail pending her next court date on Jan. 18.
Pomerantz, meanwhile, wants the unhinged 20-year-old charged with a hate crime.
“If that is not considered terrorism or a hate crime to you, I don’t know what is,” Pomerantz said, recalling what he told a sergeant on the scene.
“She definitely saw my yarmulke,” Pomerantz said, referring to Ugur’s assault.
“I’m assuming that’s how she differentiated that I’m Jewish.”
Ugur’s attorney Caner Demirayak provided a video to The Post from a purported witness who claimed his client only pepper-sprayed Pomerantz in self-defense after he punched her.
“Yes, a poster was removed. Yes, there was a pepper-spraying. There was no knife. There was no threat ‘I’ll cut you.’ There was no ‘I’ll kill the Jews.’ There was no antisemitic comments at all,” Demirayak said.
“We think that there was a rush to an arrest. We don’t think they’ll be able to secure an indictment and we’re looking forward to a full dismissal.”
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said that the case had been assigned to the Hate Crimes Bureau and was still being investigated.
The incident unfolded as hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers skyrocketed since the raging Israel-Hamas war started last month, with a whopping 214% surge in antisemitic incidents in October, the NYPD announced Wednesday.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
