Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Uber Driver Killed With Hockey Stick Just Weeks Before His Jewish Granddaughter’s Naming Ceremony

An Uber driver was reportedly killedwhen a man struck him with a hockey stick — just a month before he was planning to attend his granddaughter’s Jewish baby-naming ceremony.

Randolph Tolk, 68, of Brooklyn, died after being beaten by Kohji Kosugi, 39, of Manhattan, after Kosugi hit the passenger side of his car with a hockey stick at the corner of W. 20th Street and West Street, near the Chelsea Piers complex.

Tolk got out of his car and got into a physical altercation with Kosugi, who then hit Tolk in the head with the stick. Tolk got back in his car and managed to drive several blocks before crashing.

Tolk was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

“I’m numb,” said Tolk’s son, Andrew Tolk, from his home in Las Vegas. “I just can’t understand how a person my age whacks a 68-year-old man with a hockey stick continuously.”

Kosugi was arrested and charged with manslaughter after police used security camera footage to confirm his identity as the assailant.

Tolk once worked in the garment industry, and had moved from his home in New Jersey to a relative’s house in Brooklyn so he could stay in New York.

“His passion was the garment industry, and he loved New York,” Andrew Tolk said.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.