Elderly Man Beaten In Hate Crime At Jewish Nursing Home
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By Aiden Pink December 3, 2017
An 84-year-old resident of a Jewish nursing home in the Bronx, New York, was beaten, nearly robbed and subjected to anti-Semitic remarks on Saturday by a man who was able to make his way into the facility by pretending that he needed to use the bathroom.
The incident occurred at the New Jewish Home facility. The victim’s friend told NBC New York that a security guard let the alleged perpetrator into the facility to use the bathroom.
Instead, police say, the intruder went to the victim’s fourth-floor apartment, lit a joint, and told the man give him his money. When the resident refused, the thief told him, “I will kill you, you f—-ing Jew.”
He then hit the old man with a cardboard tube and threw a fire extinguisher at him, before running away to the lobby, where he was arrested.
The alleged assailant, Alen Califano, 41, was charged with robbery, burglary, a hate crime, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and possession of marijuana, the New York Police Department said. Califano reportedly has had many arrests dating back to when he was 19 years old.
““We are all relieved that our resident – a wonderful, kind and gentle man – did not sustain serious injury,” New Jewish Home’s director of University Avenue assisted living, Leslie Hoot, said in a statement. “We are providing him with comfort, counseling and excellent quality care.”
Hoot also said that the security guard that allegedly let in Califano was “fired immediately,” and that they would be demanding an incident report and remedial plan by Monday from the security firm it hired.
Update, 6:40 p.m.: The article has been updated with a statement from New Jewish Home.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
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