53°
At 1:30 a.m., Mo Hamzeh said on his Instagram that he was waiting on an Uber outside Grove Station when a man asked him where he was from. Hamzeh said Baltimore, and then when the man persisted, Hamzeh said he told him he was Palestinian.
The man and several of his friends began following Hamzeh, yelling racial slurs before sucker punching him in the face, he said. Hamzeh said he fell and his twisted his knee, bumping the back of his head. The group kicked him, spit at him and called him a (expletive) terrorist among other slurs, he said.
Fadel Abdallah was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, Kimberly Wallace-Scalfione, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office, said. The incident is not being investigated as a bias crime based on the current investigation, Wallace-Scalfione said.
"Law enforcement officials will do their due diligence by conducting a thorough investigation to determine what led to the incident," Wallace-Scalfione said.
Hamzeh said he suffered a minor fracture on the left side of his nose, along with a facial contusion and a burst blood vessel. He is currently in concussion protocol, he said. Hamzeh declined additional comment, saying he preferred to wait until the investigation is final.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at JCPDTIPS@gmail.com or call 855-JCP-TIPS.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Ridgewood and receive free news updates.
