The Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD) in Michigan announced Sunday that they opened an investigation after a Jewish person was assaulted on the street by “a group of unknown males.”
The gang of men asked the 19-year-old victim if he was Jewish and when the victim replied in the affirmative they attacked him, the AAPD said. (RELATED: ‘Heartbreaking’: Report Shows Elite University Faculty Refused To Step In, Protect Jewish Students From Anti-Semitism)
The victim sustained minor injuries during the assault and he reported the incident to the police, the police said. The suspects fled the scene, the AAPD added.
“We take bias-motivated crimes very seriously and have assigned this incident to our hate crime detectives,” the press release reads.
“I have communicated with the University of Michigan police staff, and our goal is to discuss safety over the next weeks. There is absolutely no place for hate or ethnic intimidation in the City of Ann Arbor. Our department stands against antisemitism and acts of bias-motivated crimes,” AAPD Police Chief Andre C. Anderson said in the press release.
Ethnic Intimidation Investigation pic.twitter.com/nfY8SgPu9N
— Ann Arbor Police (@A2Police) September 16, 2024
The AAPD stressed in the press release that the investigation was still in its early phases.
“In hard times, we at Michigan Hillel draw strength from this incredible community — students, parents, alumni, and friends — and that strength powers our pride and joy in being Jewish and, in particular, being Jewish at the University of Michigan,” Michigan Hillel CEO Rabbi Davey Rosen wrote in a press release.
The university president, Santa Ono, said that the “safety of our campus community is our highest priority” and emphasized that the university is “firmly against antisemitism and all bias-motivated behavior,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
The campus’s Division of Public Safety & Security acknowledged “an alleged assault incident” in its own press release and observed that the victim “stated they were walking with friends, and was asked what their religious affiliation was by the suspects.”