The woman who allegedly threw coffee at a man wearing a Palestinian scarf and his child at a Brooklyn playground has surrendered to police.
Hadasa Karvavanibozak, 48, turned herself in to the NYPD Tuesday morning after police identified her as the one who attacked Ashish Prashar.
Locals near Edmonds Playground in Fort Greene also had photos of her printed and taped to walls and storefronts.
She was accused of attacking and yelling at 40-year-old Prashar and his 18-month-old son at Edmonds Playground on DeKalb Ave in Fort Greene on Nov. 7.
Karvavanibozak is charged with a hate crime, reckless endangerment and aggravated harassment.
After she surrendered, police confirmed that Karvavanibozak was not the mother of the other child and that Prashar believed she was a hired nanny.
Hadasa Karvavanibozak, 48, turned herself in to New York police this morning after police identified her
Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said: “A lot of investigative work has gone into this case to identify her.
“A number of CrimeStopper tips and some good computer work in the area led us to a building where we believe she lived and from that we were able to get a good identification.”
Prashar told Ny Breaking.com that his 18-month-old son was playing basketball with the woman’s child when she approached and asked if Prashar supported Hamas.
When Prashar told the woman he didn’t want to answer, she started shouting at him to get away from her and her child. “She very aggressively told me to get out of here, my son was behind me,” he said.
This prompted the alarmed father to take out his phone and film the woman as she approached him, throwing a cup of coffee and her phone in his direction.
Prashar claims the woman called him a terrorist before throwing the drink, but the video only captures the part where she says, “Go away, go away, get away from me.”
When he stopped answering, the woman continued to approach him and hit him on the hand several times.
Ashish Prashar told Ny Breaking.com that his 18-month-old son was playing basketball with the woman’s child when she approached and asked if Prashar supported Hamas.
When Prashar told the woman he didn’t want to answer, she started shouting at him to get away from her and her child.
“When someone asks you a proactive question, they’re not looking for a real answer,” he said. “I wanted to de-escalate.”
“I am saddened that my son was the target of a hate crime at the age of 18,” he said. “He knew something was wrong, he knew something wasn’t right. I held him there and told him he was loved.”
The father wore a keffiyeh scarf, a popular Middle Eastern headscarf.
He told me later New York Magazine: ‘She said, ‘You don’t belong here. I’m Jewish-American, and you don’t belong here!’
“As a person of color, I know what that means when they add ‘American’ – it doesn’t just mean the playground. She shouted it a few more times and got quite in my face about it.
She said: ‘All Arab people are dogs. And do you know that your people burn babies in ovens? I hope someone burns your child in an oven.”
He believes he was attacked because of the color of his skin and the keffiyeh scarf he was wearing
He believes he was attacked because of the color of his skin and the keffiyeh scarf he was wearing.
In an X (formerly Twitter) after last week the victim made it clear that he is from Punjabi and supports Palestine.
‘I am not Palestinian. I am Punjabi. But my ancestors survived the European invasion of my homeland. They killed 100,000,000 of my people through colonial policies.
‘And so I advocate for Palestine, because I cannot stand by and watch history repeat itself. In that sense, I am also Palestinian,” Prashar said.
He also told the Magazine that the scarf was a gift he received from a Palestinian woman in 2011 after working with Tony Blair on economic projects in Ramallah to help the West Bank economy.