Tenants cheer his attack at Rikers Cell-ebrating slumlord slam
The city’s “worst landlord” was punched in the face by another inmate and had to be briefly hospitalized within hours of being booked into Rikers Island on Friday, and residents of Daniel Ohebshalom’s crumbling, rat-infested apartments feel he had it coming.
“I had to pay out of my pocket for the kitchen to be fixed because the rats were chewing their way in,” Nelly, 37, a nurse who lives on the first floor of Ohebshalom’s building at 709 170th St. in Washington Heights, told The Post on Sunday. “Him getting punched is karma . . . . God forgive me for laughing!”
“He’s not a good person — he’s not nice, he’s a very crazy person,” added Yovanny Marte Lopez, 66, a 30-year resident of the building. “It’s good that this happened to him.”
Two other tenants who don’t speak English smiled broadly when a third resident explained in Spanish what happened to him. One even gave a thumbs-up.
A police source confirmed the Friday afternoon attack to The Post.
Sources told WNBC that it doesn’t appear the unidentified inmate specifically targeted Ohebshalom, who may have some broken bones in his face. Authorities brought him back to Rikers late Friday, the station said.
A cell and fines
Ohebshalom’s failure to fix nearly 700 open violations in his buildings at 705 and 709 170th St. have earned him a two-month vacation at Rikers and fines of more than $3 million, officials said earlier this month.
City officials secured a warrant for his arrest March 8 for failing to comply with a February 2023 civil contempt finding.
Ohebshalom turned himself in Thursday, officials said.
“The reason we’re after this guy and his practices is because of the life people have been living there — it’s horrible,” Adolfo Carrión Jr., commissioner of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said at the time.
“People are dealing with mold, leaks, pests — rats and roaches — peeling paint, lead paint,” he added. “Their children are exposed, seniors are exposed. It’s time to stop this nonsense.”
“Slumlords in New York City are officially on notice,” he crowed. “Landlords in New York City will not get away with putting our families in unsafe, unhealthy, and downright unlivable conditions.”
Several apartment dwellers said they were thrilled to hear he was finally facing consequences.
“It’s been long overdue,” Sonia Peralta, 73, who has lived in 705 for the past 44 years, said shortly after the warrant was announced. “He should have been arrested a long, long time ago.”
Her bathroom ceiling fell two years ago, which led to a shoddy patch job, and her walls are covered in soot from the broken down boiler, she said.
The heat and hot water fail constantly, rats and roaches have turned the building into a minimotel and the broken lobby door allows homeless people to wander in and shoot up, she added.
“We want to see him in jail for a long time.”