NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Friday marks the 30th anniversary of a deadly shooting on the Brooklyn Bridge, when a Lebanese-born terrorist shot at a van of Hasidic teenagers, killing one and gravely injuring three others.
Ari Halberstam, 16, was shot in the head on March 1, 1994, on the Brooklyn Bridge as he rode in a van with 14 other Yeshiva students. He died five days later.
Three others were shot in the attack, one of which suffers from lifelong injuries.
The attack was commemorated Friday on the ramp of the Brooklyn Bridge by Ari’s mother, Devorah Halberstam, who was joined by Mayor Eric Adams, New York Attorney General Letitia James, FBI officials, elected officials and community members.
Speakers took to the podium, candles were lit and a prayer was read in honor of the victims.
“Ari was murdered and his friends were targeted, because they were identifiably Jewish. Today, we need to have Jewish pride,” Devorah said.
The attack was carried out by Rashid Baz, who was sentenced to 141 years in state prison following a jury trial in which he was found guilty of one count of murder, 14 counts of attempted murder and one firearm charge.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, a human rights organization, Baz’s defense attorneys initially claimed that the shooting was prompted by a traffic dispute. Baz later admitted that he planned to target Jewish people in the attack.
In the years that followed her son’s death, Devorah turned to advocacy against terrorism, helping to pass the first state laws that deal specifically with terrorism. The FBI said that after over six years of work, Devorah had her son’s murder classified as a terrorist incident by the Department of Justice and FBI.
Devorah also advocated to pass Ari’s Law in New York state, which requires people have a gun license to purchase kits that can be used to assemble a working gun, and helped establish the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights.
“We must never, ever give up the fight to destroy terrorism, to destroy antisemitism, to destroy hate, to prevent what happened 30 years ago today from ever happening again,” Devorah said Friday.
In July 2023, the ADL offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any co-conspirators who aided the attack.
“What Devorah did, many people don’t really understand. A mother turned her pain into purpose,” Adams said Friday. “When Ari died on this ramp, there was no understanding or belief that we were having sleeper cells in our city waiting to wreak havoc and violence. She spent 30 years of her life. Those 10,000 plus days not only mourning the loss of her son, but recommitting herself every day to prevent the loss of other children.”