NEW YORK, NY – A man who threatened to shoot a 19-year-old Jewish Man inside the Bay Terrace shopping center in Flushing has been arrested.
Eli Irby, 23, of Deer Park, New York, was charged with two counts of hate crime and menacing and two counts of aggravated harassment against religion.
109th Precinct detectives in Queens investigated the incident after Irby approached a 19-year-old male and began shouting anti-Jewish statements and slurs at the man. Irby approached the victim and displayed a handgun, threatening to shoot and kill him.
Irby fled the scene, but through a monthlong investigation, police were able to connect him to the incident on Thursday.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.