A person who received into an argument with pro-Palestinian demonstrators earlier than hitting one together with his automotive on the Higher East Facet of Manhattan on Tuesday has been charged with assault, in keeping with the police.
The person, Reuven Kahane, 57, was arguing with two demonstrators round 9 a.m. when he struck a 55-year-old girl together with his car, the police mentioned. In response, the demonstrators hit Mr. Kahane’s automotive.
Mr. Kahane was charged with second-degree assault. The demonstrator who was hit, Maryellen Novak, was handled at Weill Cornell Medical Middle for minor accidents. She was arrested and charged with prison mischief and illegal meeting. The opposite demonstrator concerned, John Rozendaal, 63, was additionally arrested and charged with prison mischief.
Mr. Kahane was arraigned Wednesday morning and launched with out bail. The Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace declined to prosecute Ms. Novak and Mr. Rozendaal, in keeping with a press release.
Legal professionals for Mr. Kahane, Sara Shulevitz and Mindy Meyer, mentioned that “extra details will come to gentle” in the middle of the case.
“We’re assured that our shopper might be exonerated of all prices,” they mentioned.
The protesters had been a part of a gaggle of about 25 individuals demonstrating outdoors of 755 Park Avenue, the police mentioned, and the group was strolling away when Mr. Kahane received into “a verbal dispute” with two of them.
A scholar group, Columbia College Apartheid Divest, disputed the police’s account, saying in a press release that Mr. Kahane drove as much as the protesters in his automotive and requested for a flier earlier than “grabbing the protester’s arm.”
As they had been leaving, the group mentioned, he “circled the block to drive into our peaceable demonstration” and struck an individual whom they recognized as one of many group’s de-escalation group members.
The episode is the second time in per week that members of their group have been assaulted and the fourth hospitalization, the assertion mentioned.
In a telephone name on Wednesday, Mr. Rozendaal mentioned that he was additionally on the demonstration as a de-escalator on the request of the coed group. He had attended different demonstrations as a protester, however on Tuesday his sole position was “retaining individuals secure,” he mentioned.
Mr. Rozendaal, a musician who lives in Manhattan, declined to provide an account of what precisely led to the confrontation with Mr. Kahane or the aftermath. However he mentioned that over the course of their demonstration in entrance of a Columbia College trustee’s house, they had been approached by individuals who had been “ actually, actually offended.”
“It was a problem throughout these two hours to have compassion for everyone on the scene as a result of anger comes from worry and it doesn’t come from nowhere,” he mentioned. “But it surely additionally felt prefer it was making individuals unsafe.”
Because the group was leaving the world, he mentioned, the confrontation with Mr. Kahane occurred.
Mr. Rozendaal, who was not struck, mentioned he was launched from central reserving — the place individuals arrested are taken to be processed — round 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday and was advised that the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace had “declined to prosecute” his case.
“The story is what’s occurring to the individuals in Gaza and United States complicity and Columbia College’s complicity,” he mentioned. “And the opposite piece of the story is the braveness of Columbia College college students in refusing to be complicit. And I used to be there to help that.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
