NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday morning an arrest is expected "shortly" in connection with the alleged attack on a journalist at a lockdown protest in Brooklyn this week.
The mayor made the comments on WNYC's "Brian Lehrer Show" after "checking in" with Police Commissioner Dermot Shea about the incident.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of demonstrators flooded the streets of Borough Park, waving Trump flags, setting fire to masks and allegedly pinning Jacob Kornbluh, a national politics reporter for the Jewish Insider, to a wall while yelling the Yiddish word for "snitch."
"The crowd just ganged up on me, yelled at me — 'Hitler,' 'Nazi' — flipped a finger, spat at me, tried to pull me, kick me, somebody hit me in the head and it took a few minutes walking down the street until I was able to escape with the help of the NYPD," Kornbluh told WCBS 880's Steve Scott in an interview Thursday.
He blames Orthodox Jewish community activist Heshy Tischler for turning the crowd against him.
"I was standing on the side talking to another reporter while observing the scene, at some point somebody notified Heshy Tischler that I was on scene and he was looking for me. He identified me, he came toward me without a mask, almost pinning me to the shopfront and started talking to me, spitting into my face, saying 'I'm a snitch,' I'm an informer,'" Kornbluh said. "That prompted people in the crowd to run towards me. At that point he was motivating them, directing them to scream at me and to chase me out."
Both de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have called for an arrest in the case.
"What happened to him was absolutely unaccpetable, it was disgusting to watch, it was troubling to watch, it was painful," de Blasio said. "You cannot have someone assaulted for trying to actually report the news to everyone."
“There's no excuse for violence – especially against a reporter. This is a person who was just doing his job. There is no excuse. It was disgusting behavior, frankly, and its unintelligent,” the governor said Thursday.
Kornbluh provided an update on the investigation during a Zoom call with reporters on Friday afternoon.
"The investigation is ongoing and authorities, the NYPD and the district attorney's office, are looking into identifying those who assaulted me and also into Mr. Tischler's involvement in inciting the crowd and directing them at me," Kornbluh said. "I hope that this investigation will come to a quick, clear conclusion and will send a message that anybody, regardless if you are a reporter on the job or if you are a member of the community or any individual, that human life is precious to all of us and nobody should feel unsafe walking on the streets of New York City."
Tischler, a City Council hopeful, denied the allegations.
In a video message posted to Twitter on Friday, Tischler said he got a call from the NYPD's 66th Precinct and was told police will be arresting him Monday morning.
"I'll be taken in for inciting a riot," Tischler said, adding that he is considering turning himself in, but he's "not sure yet."
He said he will plead not guilty. Tischler maintains that Kornbluh "harassed" him.