Jews in Brooklyn may want to check their mezuzahs before the Passover holiday, just to be on the safe side. After all, it’s supposed to be done twice in every seven years anyway, right?
A 29-year-old Jewish man of Russian descent was shot in the chest on Ocean Parkway in the Midwood section of Brooklyn early Tuesday morning. The motive for the shooting is unclear, however; police have yet to determine whether or not the attack was a hate crime.
It was not the first time Natik Nisimov had been shot, according to the New York Daily News, quoting police sources. In 2012, Nisimov had also been shot and wounded, that time in the leg, but he refused at that time to cooperate with the police.
This time, Nisimov was found lying on the ground unconscious in front of an apartment building; he died of his wounds shortly after being taken to nearby Coney Island Hospital.
According to the report, Nisimov had recently moved out of his home in Sheepshead Bay. A building superintendant who identified himself as “Beko” told the newspaper, “He’s a bad guy. He’s got bad friends.”
No arrests have yet been made in the case.
Two days earlier, in the neighborhood of Williamsburg where the large Chassidic Satmar sect controls much of the area, two Chassidic Jews were hit Sunday night by paint balls fired at them in two rapid, consecutive incidents.
A 37-year-old man was treated at the first scene by an Hatzolah emergency medical team for injuries to the face and neck; in the second incident, which occurred a few blocks away from the first, a teenage boy was the victim.
Detectives at the NYPD 90th precinct reviewed the case and ruled it as a possible bias incident, according to JP Updates. The Hate Crimes Task Force is reviewing the incident as well.