NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A man was arrested and charged after he allegedly tried to kidnap a 6-year-old Hasidic Jewish boy who was walking with his father in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon, the NYPD said.
Stephen Stowe, 28, is charged with attempted kidnapping and harassment for the attack on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights.
As seen in a video of the failed abduction captured and provided by the Crown Heights Shomrim, the father of the 6-year-old is holding hands and walking down the street with his two sons when the masked assailant, wearing a blue-and-white letterman jacket, takes the young boy into his arms.
The father snatches his son back before pushing the assailant away from him and the children.
Police said that the attempted kidnapper walked away and was later apprehended by officers. The reason the attacker targeted the child is unclear.
Crown Heights is home to a large community of ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish people of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and the neighborhood’s Shomrim is a volunteer patrol organization meant to protect the streets and aid victims of crimes.
Devorah Halberstam, a Jewish community advocate from the neighborhood and an honorary commissioner of public safety for the NYPD, said that the assailant’s mask indicates premeditation and that these kinds of incidents put parents on high alert.
“The most sacred treasure in this world are our children,” she said. “I will say thank God for his father, but all members of the community feel the same. They feel concerned and foremost they’re worried about their kids.”
Bruce lives in the neighborhood and told 1010 WINS that over the years you get to know the people around you and look out for one another, making moments like these especially concerning.
“You're trying to build a life, yourself, your kids and so forth, and to think that [someone] feels there’s an opportunity to snatch a kid here of all places, right? I think that’s way out of the norm,” he said.
Chabad public relations representative Yaacov Behrman said on social media Sunday morning that he spoke to the father of the young boy and praised him for his quick response to the attack.
“He asked me to express his appreciation for the immediate action taken by law enforcement @NYPD71Pct and @ShomrimCH, as well as their dedication and sensitivity,” Behrman wrote. “He also mentioned that his kids are doing okay, everyone is fine, and he is grateful for the outpouring of love from around the world.”
Halberstam, whose son Ari was murdered in a 1994 antisemitic act of terrorism, said that people need to be actively fighting hate.
“The good people of the world have to stand up and say ‘Not here, not in my neck of the woods. I’m going to teach my children not to hate, to tell them you can't and you mustn't,’” she said.