An Orthodox Jew walking home from work in Brooklyn at 2:45 AM on Friday was brutally attacked by a pack of thugs playing the “knockout game,” leaving him sprawled on the ground with a giant lump on his forehead, law-enforcement sources told The NY Post.
Shmuel Perl, 24, wearing a yarmulke, was on his way to his Borough Park home when he overheard four men discussing drunkenly the “knockout” game, made famous by You Tube, in which thugs, usually Black, sucker punch passers-by, looking to knock them down to the ground, preferably unconscious.
“I was walking home on the way back from my job. I came across a group of people who were walking towards me, and I was able to hear them speaking loudly about this knockout game,” Perl, in a video interview obtained by The Post.
He heard one of the men saying, “I know you can’t do it,” and another concurred, “No, you can’t do it.”
“Yeah, I can do it! Look, I’ll do it to this guy!” one of the men—according to the Post a 28-year-old with a significant criminal record, reportedly shouted.
The man then allegedly hit Perl square in the face, making him the latest victim of the vicious assault that’s been terrifying New York City’s Jews.
“As I’m walking on the sidewalk, the group surrounds me, and one of them, as I try to get away, one of them stepped out towards me and, with a closed fist, hits me in the face,” Perl said in the video, which was recorded by the Jewish neighborhood patrol Shomrim, adding: “As I was able to walk away from them, they called after me, ‘Come back. I can do this. I will knock you out.’ ”
Perl, who called Shomrim, wasn’t seriously injured.
Four suspects, who were apparently in the middle of celebrating the alleged puncher’s birthday, were captured at the scene. Charges were pending as of Friday night, sources told the Post.
New York City police is investigating 8 other recent attacks against Jews people, still trying to figure out if they are hate crimes.
In Jersey City, a 46-year-old homeless man died in September after someone sucker-punched him and he fell back and hit his head against a fence.
The knockout assault participants have gone online to publish video and text records of their crimes.
