SHOT AT ON UPPER W. SIDE
Hate crime probe after 2 Jewish men targeted by someone in an SUV
Two Jewish men were fired upon by a person in an SUV during a hate-filled drive-by on the Upper West Side, cops said Wednesday.
Jeffrey Solomon, 65, and Eliezer Siegel, 19, were crossing the corner of West End Ave. and W. 100th about 9:15 p.m. on Sunday when the SUV came screeching past. Siegel (photo) was wearing traditional Hasidic clothing at the time.
Someone in the SUV started firing pellets at the two men, possibly from a BB gun or a gel blaster, according to the victims.
“I felt a sharp sting in my left arm,” Solomon told the Daily News on Wednesday. “My friend was hit, like, four times in the arm and across the chest.
“[I] saw a white vehicle passing. I looked over at my friend, and he looked stunned,” Solomon added. “I said, ‘Have we been shot?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ ”
The two men were hit as protests over the ongoing conflict in Gaza have roiled on the streets of New York City.
On Sunday morning, workers at Effy’s Cafe on W. 96th St. — five blocks away from where Solomon and Siegel (photo) were struck — found the front gates and sidewalk vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti reading “Free Gaza” and “Form a line here to support genocide.”
After they were hit, Siegel and Solomon immediately flagged down cops, who took them to the 24th Precinct stationhouse, where detectives from the Hate Crime Task Force were called.
“They said they were going to look at cameras,” Solomon said.
Police confirmed that the two men were “struck by multiple objects that came from a white vehicle” but couldn’t immediately say what the two men were hit with.
Both refused medical treatment.
No arrests have been made as the Hate Crime Task Force continues to investigate.
Solomon works as a school psychologist. Siegel grew up on the Upper West Side and has lived in Jerusalem since he was 7.
The two men were leaving a neighborhood yeshiva when they were hit.
“[We were] standing by the shul. A white car passes us, and we feel this shooting,” Siegel recounted. “I was checking for blood because it was that hard. I thought it was like a silenced gun.
We heard this ‘sssst’ sound.
“I got it first, but Jeff realized it first,” Siegel said. “I didn’t hear anyone say anything.”
Solomon said the incident left him with PTSD.
“I am horrified it would happen at this time in this neighborhood,” he said.
Marches over the Israeli-Hamas conflict have regularly taken place in the city since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the war in Gaza.
Over the past few months, pro-Palestinian protesters tried to disrupt the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree and picketed the Capitol in Washington during the president’s March 7 State of the Union address.
The NYPD has seen a 51% jump in hate crimes against Jews this year — with 62 so far this year compared with 41 during the same time frame in 2023 — according to department statistics.
Mayor Adams and the Rev. Al Sharpton joined forces Wednesday to demand action from President Biden’s administration to help crack down on gang violence engulfing Haiti — but they stopped short of calling for U.S. troops to be deployed to the embattled Caribbean nation.
In a news conference with local faith leaders at City Hall, Sharpton and Adams said the federal government must immediately stem the flow of guns suspected of being trafficked from Florida to Haiti, where it ends up in the hands of gangs that toppled the country’s government in a bloody revolt this month.
They also said the feds must immediately cease any deportations of Haitians from the U.S. and provide resources to help quell chaos in the country.
“There are immediate things we can do right now: Stop the flow of guns, stop the deportations, give the expertise on how to stabilize the community, and give the resources that are needed at this time,” the mayor said after noting that New York City has by far the largest Haitian diaspora in the U.S.
When asked by the Daily News if there should be U.S. boots on the ground in Haiti, Sharpton demurred.
“We want to start by investigating the gun trafficking, and secondly the resources that are available, like Kenya. I don’t think we’ve gone further than that. If they can start there, we can see what else is necessary,” Sharpton said, referencing a plan by the African nation to deploy about 1,000 specialized police officers to Haiti to help restore order.
When asked if he wanted to add anything to Sharpton’s comments about a U.S. troop deployment, Adams shook his head.
The U.S. State Department announced $25 million in humanitarian relief for Haiti last week for food assistance, relocation support and emergency health care.
The unrest on Haiti started after Ariel Henry, the country’s acting prime minister, resigned March 12 following weeks of mounting pressure over gang violence in Haiti.
Henry’s exit has left a leadership vacuum for Jimmy Cherizier, an infamous gang leader known by his “Barbecue” nom de guerre, to seize control of large parts of the country, including the capital Port-au-Prince.
A coalition of gangs affiliated with Barbecue have rampaged through Haiti in recent weeks, killing scores of civilians, setting fires to police stations and releasing inmates from local prisons.
At City Hall, Sharpton said that he has spoken to White House officials about his push for federal action and that he’s going to visit Washington on Thursday.
“I expect to speak to senior White House officials,” he said, “but they know of this press conference and they know the question of gun trafficking.”
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
A Queens-based real estate firm and its broker-president will have to cough up $845,000 as part of a settlement reached with the city and state over accusations they illegally listed and rented out multiple Upper East Side apartments through Airbnb, according to court documents.
The agreement with Mega Homes and its broker-president, Katherine Cartagena, which city and state officials finalized Wednesday, will require the nearly $1 million payment as restitution and will serve to shut down the illegal, short-term rentals, which were run out of 311 E. 51st St. and 207 W. 75th St. in Manhattan by Mega Homes.
The hefty penalty, which stemmed from parallel probes conducted by the city’s Office of Special Enforcement and the New York Department of State, will have to be made over the next two years and is due in full by October 2026. As part of the settlement, Mega Homes and Cartagena are prohibited from renting and advertising apartments for periods under 30 days. Cartagena also agreed that if she advertises illegal transient rentals moving forward her real estate license will be revoked.
“New York is in the middle of a housing shortage crisis which makes returning a long-term rental units to the housing market crucial,” Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez said. “The Department of State’s Division of Licensing Services will continue to collaborate with our city partners to ensure the laws are being followed and that violators are held accountable.”
A report issued last month showed that the Big Apple’s rental vacancy rate stood at 1.4% last year, the lowest level it’s been at since 1968, further proof the city is in a serious housing crisis.
According to city officials, Mega Home and Cartagena raked in more than $2 million from Airbnb between 2019 and 2022. Those payments — tied to just the two Upper East Side buildings — were for approximately 550 short-term rentals to over 2,000 guests within that three-year stretch.
The city’s legal action against Mega Homes and Cartagena is grounded in a city law that requires booking services like Airbnb to provide it with data on shortterm rental transactions. The requirements include providing the physical address of the short-term rental, the internet address of the short-term rental listing, and the contact and banking information of the host.
That data, according to the city’s lawsuit, demonstrated that the firm broke the city’s Consumer Protection Law.
Mayor Adams said in a written statement that the settlement means those city laws are working as intended.
“With our short-term rental reporting and registration laws we are stopping illegal operators from impeding our housing goals,” he said.
Cartagena declined comment. A spokesman for Airbnb did not immediately respond.