After car attempts to mow down NYC yeshiva students, there's worry it's part of a trend

EAST FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (PIX11) – A man is in police custody, facing a long list of charges related to what prosecutors call an attempted murder as a hate crime, using a car as a weapon. Both police and the local safety patrol say that the crime is part of a larger pattern of antisemitic hate that needs to be addressed and reduced. 

There are now many videos from surveillance cameras and cellphone cameras showing the incident, which happened around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

The videos show a man in a white sedan ride into the yard in front of the yeshiva on Glenwood Road at 55th Street, headed toward three of its students and two of its rabbis, according to the yeshiva. 

On Thursday morning, a man who'd just walked out from the religious school and gave only his first name, David, described the mood inside as "on edge, I'd say. Nervous." 

Investigators said that the driver of the car, Asghar Ali, 58, tried to run over the students and rabbis after yelling disturbing comments, which witnesses heard, according to first responders.  

"What they're saying," said Steven Weill, a coordinator of Shomrim Safety Patrol, quoting eyewitnesses, "[is that Ali} said that he wants to kill all the Jews." 

As the attack was happening, students saw and memorized the car's license plate number. They gave the information to the Shomrim Safety Patrol, which, in turn, notified police and tracked the car down about a mile from where the crime took place. 

Weill, the Shomrim coordinator, encountered Ali when police arrested him. 

"I considered him mentally disturbed the second he pulled up on the sidewalk," said Weill. "What motivated him, I don't know. That's up to police hate crimes [investigators] to do their investigation." 

Ali, the alleged driver, faces a dozen charges, including attempted murder as a hate crime, as well as other hate crime charges. 

The NYPD says that hate crimes are up 25 percent this year so far compared with the same period last year. When it comes to antisemitic hate crimes, however, the number is far higher -- it's a 60 percent increase.

Ali is expected to go before a judge in a first appearance Thursday night or Friday morning.