Queens Man Indicted on Hate Crime Charges at Kosher Bagel Shop

A 22-year-old Fresh Meadows man was arraigned Monday on an indictment charging him with hate crimes against a Jewish-owned bagel shop on Union Turnpike, where prosecutors say he twice vandalized the storefront in May.

Authorities identified the defendant as Dawood Faisal. According to the Queens District Attorney’s office, he targeted Bagels & Co., a kosher shop, on two occasions last spring. He faces two counts of third-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime and could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison if convicted, officials said.

Prosecutors allege the first incident took place on May 15 at about 6:18 p.m. Faisal is accused of knocking over nine metal plant stands outside the shop, spilling dirt and plants across the sidewalk. He then allegedly gathered up the debris and hurled it twice at the storefront and the Israeli flags displayed there.

About a week later, on May 23 around 1 a.m., prosecutors say Faisal returned. This time he allegedly pushed and kicked over 11 metal plant stands, emptied their contents onto the sidewalk and uprooted plants in a nearby clay pot.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Monday that Faisal targeted the shop “specifically because it is Jewish-owned and featured Israeli flags.” She added: “Bias crimes are an affront to our entire community and will not be tolerated.”

The bagel shop case is not the only one Faisal faces. He is also charged with manslaughter and assault in a separate case stemming from a deadly three-car collision on May 25, two days after the second alleged incident at the shop. Prosecutors allege he was driving more than 75 mph on Francis Lewis Boulevard, where the speed limit is 35 mph, when he ran two red lights and struck two vehicles. One of them was propelled into a crosswalk, where it hit 71-year-old Cara Trager and her husband. Trager died of her injuries.

State Assemblymember David Weprin, whose district includes the bagel shop, praised the hate crime indictment and noted that Trager was one of his constituents. “This was yet another incident of antisemitism in Queens, and this indictment further demonstrates that we will never back down to hate,” Weprin said in a statement.

The charges against Faisal are allegations, and the indictment has yet to be tested in court. The details of the vandalism case, as laid out by prosecutors, are modest in physical terms: overturned planters, scattered soil, a storefront splattered with dirt. But under New York law, the alleged motive is what elevates the charge. Prosecutors contend the shop was chosen because of who owns it and what hangs in its window, which is why a pair of criminal mischief counts carries the weight of a bias crime.