A Brooklyn man waged a marathon campaign of hate against his Muslim next-door neighbor, culminating in a brutal break-in where he bashed the victim with a mallet and desecrated a Quran, prosecutors charge.
Izak Kadosh, 41, was busted Friday and charged with more than 40 criminal offenses, many of them hate crimes including attempted murder, for 13 incidents stretching back to March.
The suspect’s arrest came the day after the mallet attack that left the victim so badly hurt he needed a tube inserted in his chest to drain internal bleeding during three nights he was hospitalized at Kings County Hospital, the victim says. He shared what he said was a video of the alleged assault shot by a concerned neighbor.
“The last month has been horrible,” Chebira Ahmed told the Daily News.
“I can’t work. I can’t sleep. He terrorizes me.”
The shocking criminal complaint and other documents outline an escalating reign of terror during which, prosecutors said, Kadosh cited being Jewish a number of times. Cops also accused Kadosh of making multiple death threats, pouring white powder on Ahmed’s door, pushing him to the ground leaving him with broken ribs, and breaking into his apartment, splashing blue paint everywhere and destroying all his belongings.
Kadosh, who building management officials said was an Israeli national who’d spent time in France, first came to the three-story brick home on Carroll St. near Schenectady Ave. in November 2022. He was doing a plumbing job there, according to Bedis Zorneti, 50, a partner at Gardens of Eden Realty, the house’s management company.
An unattached structure abutting the back of the home had been converted into two studio apartments. Kadosh lay claim to one of them while Ahmed, who serves as the building’s super, lives in the other. But Kadosh never paid a dime in rent, according to housing court documents.
“He says, ‘I’m going to pay you.’ Then he switches — he’s sort of bipolar — he starts screaming at everybody,” Zorneti said. “Then he grabs a machete and chases (the landlord).” Police say the landlord did reported Kadosh menaced her with a knife and the case against Kabosh was later sealed.
Meanwhile, Kadosh turned his ire towards Ahmed in the studio apartment next door, according to prosecutors.
The 6-foot-2 180-pound Kadosh’s hate campaign against the small and slight Ahmed began March 8 when Kadosh picked an argument with the victim, explaining that Kadosh was Jewish and the victim was Muslim, according to the criminal complaint.
Kadosh would scream, “F— all Arabics, we will kill all Arabics! You are not human!” a neighbor recounted. “He is crazy. A person like this should be in the hospital. He is dangerous to people.”
Ahmed, who goes by his middle name, Faycal, would often talk back to Kadosh, telling him, “You will not do anything. In America we are free,” the neighbor said.
“Then Izak would wake up in the morning and yell at him. Every day this would happen, like Tom & Jerry,” the neighbor said. “I told him, ‘Faycal, don’t do this. This guy is not normal.’”
On April 4, Kadosh slashed Ahmed’s tires and on May 17 he punched Ahmed in the head and pushed him to the ground, leaving him with broken ribs, according to the complaint.
Death threats soon followed, according to prosecutors.
On July 21, Kadosh gave Ahmed an ultimatum — move or Kadosh would kill him, the complaint alleges. He told Ahmed that he’d do it because he’s Jewish and Ahmed is Muslim, a reason he expressed several times in the ensuing weeks, prosecutors said.
“He said, ‘When you sleep I will come to your room and kill you,’” Ahmed told The News.
On July 27, Kadosh argued with Ahmed and shoved him and a day later Kadosh kicked the door to the victim’s apartment, damaging it, according to the complaint.
Kadosh made another death threat on Aug. 1, then repeated the threat the next day, breaking the internet cables outside the house, prosecutors said.
On Aug. 3, Kadosh poured white powder on the victim’s door, prosecutors said.
On Aug. 6, he threw oil and blue paint at Ahmed’s window, according to the complaint. Ahmed said the oil and paint ruined two air conditioning units.
About 8 a.m. Thursday, Kadosh threw a stick at the victim’s door while ranting again about how Kadosh was Jewish and the Ahmed was Muslim, according to prosecutors. “I am going to break into your apartment and I am going to kill you,” Kadosh vowed, according to court papers.
He got inside Ahmed’s apartment at 10:55 p.m. that day, bringing a mallet with him, prosecutors said. Ahmed had asked his upstairs neighbor to be watching for any such attack, and the neighbor captured the break in on video obtained by The News.
Kadosh pounded Ahmed’s head and body so badly he needed a chest tube and tore a gash on the victim’s head that needed staples to close, according to court papers. He then destroyed all of Ahmed’s belongings and splashed blue paint everywhere, prosecutors say.
A rabbi at Congregation Kahal Chassidim-Baumgarted’s Shul across the street said he was friendly with Kadosh until learning about the feud with Ahmed.
“I told him I cannot help you because you talk like this. When I said that, he threatened me too!,” the rabbi recalled.
“I was alone in the synagogue and I was very scared. He cannot control himself,” he said. “He doesn’t represent the culture we teach. It’s against he rule of the Torah.”
“It’s mental illness,” he added.
Ahmed and his neighbor said they filed multiple police reports but each time cops responded Kadosh was nowhere to be found. Police say most of the early complaints were for harassment and unless police witness the incident an arrest can’t be made, as it’s a violation.
On Friday, cops spotted Kadosh, now wanted for the previous day’s attack, in Prospect Lefferts Gardents It looked like he was concealing a weapon and he ran off but the officers caught him nearby.
He didn’t have a weapon but he resisted the officers, screaming loudly enough to draw a crowd, cops said.
Kadosh was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday on a slew of charges, including multiple counts of assault, menacing, aggravated harassment and burglary. The top charge is attempted murder as a hate crime.
He remains held on $125,000 bond. His lawyer declined to comment.
He has three prior arrests in Manhattan in 2023 on charges he violated a protective order taken out by a different victim, a 62-year-old man.
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