The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has taken a suspect into custody in connection to a possible anti-Semitic hate crime captured on video outside a sushi restaurant earlier this week.
City News Service reports, “Police Saturday said a man was taken into custody, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshal Service, as one of the primary suspects who allegedly assaulted several Jewish men Tuesday outside a restaurant in the Beverly Grove area of Los Angeles.” According to the outlet, law enforcement said the person was apprehended “at about 10:15 p.m. Friday at a home outside of Los Angeles and was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.”
The suspect’s name was not released, the report said.
LAPD requested enhanced bail “due to the crime being motivated by hatred.”
ABC7 reported that law enforcement “credited the many tips received in the case with helping to identify the suspect.” Police are still trying to identify other possible accomplices.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, cell phone footage posted on social media showed a confrontation shortly before 10 p.m. on Tuesday outside Sushi Fumi on the 300 block of North La Cienega Blvd. in L.A.
Unidentified witnesses told CBSLA that a caravan waving pro-Palestinian flags approached the restaurant. A mob of men dressed in black then physically attacked a group of Jewish diners and others sitting outside, they said. The attackers reportedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs, threw glass objects, and asked indiscriminately, “Who’s Jewish?”
“Two guys said they were, and they proceeded to beat them up,” said an unknown person from the scene.
Witnesses said the ordeal lasted about 15 minutes.
Reportedly the drivers were yelling "F**k the Jews."
You can see the pro-Palestinian group attacking two people on the sidewalk In this video, and one of them fights back.
A victim is hospitalized.
— Sia Kordestani 🦁 (@SiaKordestani) May 19, 2021
Law enforcement said five people had been punched, kicked, or wounded by broken glass, but no one was seriously injured. The restaurant was not damaged.
L.A. Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti condemned the incident, calling it an “organized, anti-Semitic attack” on Wednesday while LAPD was still investigating. He vowed to “respond with the full force of the law.”
TW violence pic.twitter.com/rdiCKwZZLR
— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) May 19, 2021
“L.A. is a city of belonging, not of hate,” tweeted Garcetti, who is part Jewish. “There is simply no place for anti-Semitism, discrimination, or prejudice of any kind in Los Angeles. And we will never tolerate bigotry and violence in our communities.”
Councilman Paul Koretz, a Democrat, said the attack was the second crime directed at Jewish people in his district over a 24-hour span. The other had occurred about two miles away from the restaurant confrontation in the Fairfax District. Security video captured footage of an Orthodox Jewish man being chased by a caravan of people waving Palestinian flags.
An #Orthodox #Jewish man is chased down by two drivers waving #Palestinian flags in the #FairfaxDistrict. It's the latest suspected hate crime in the Southland as Middle East tensions reach all the way to L.A.
Tonight at 11 from ABC7 https://t.co/s1uKkVkuSg pic.twitter.com/LtFY5QHRYY— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) May 20, 2021
“These violent acts will not go unchecked,” Koretz said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “We will do everything necessary to bring these criminals to justice and to restore order on our City streets.”
Koretz, who is also Jewish, committed “to deploy more resources to the region” to better protect people from similar violent attacks.
The L.A. Daily News reported that “a large crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators” had gathered at the Israeli consulate in West L.A. earlier in the day on Tuesday at a rally organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement. According to the outlet, “thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators” also rallied in Westwood last weekend.
Related: LAPD Investigating Attack On Jewish Men As Possible Hate Crime By Pro-Palestinian Group