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 West 100th St. about 9:15 p.m. Sunday when the SUV came screeching past. Siegel was wearing traditional Hasidic clothing at the time.
Someone inside 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 the over the ongoing conflict in Gaza have erupted 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 were struck — found the front gates and sidewalk valdalized 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 Crimes 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 Crimes 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 Thursday’s 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 to 41 during the same time frame in 2023 — according to department statistics.
