Mosque Says Brutally Beaten Muslim Teens Are Hate Crime Victims. Here's Why Police Disagree.

A Brooklyn mosque said a pair of Muslim teenagers are victims of a hate crime after they were brutally beaten early Sunday morning outside the mosque after prayer services there — but police aren't investigating the incident as a hate crime, WABC-TV reported.

Image source: WABC-TV

After the teens left prayer services at the Muslim Community Center in Sunset Park, they saw a running vehicle parked in front and were looking at it when the attacker came at them from behind, the station said. Surveillance video shows it was just after 1 a.m. when the suspect repeatedly punched and kicked the teens in the street, the station said, adding that one victim suffered a concussion.

Image source: WABC-TV

A mosque spokesman told WABC the attacker yelled "you effing terrorists!" The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which called for a bias probe — noted on its Facebook page that the attacker said, “You Muslims are the cause of all the problems in the world,” the New York Daily News reported. 

But police told the paper that the 16-year-olds were hitting on a woman inside the vehicle, tried to open the woman’s door and attempted to poke their heads inside. Sgt. Brendan Ryan added to the Daily News that things went on for over half an hour when the woman's boyfriend emerged and attacked the teens.

“The hate crimes unit investigated it and determined that this incident is not a hate crime,” Ryan told the paper, adding that the alleged assault is still under investigation and that police are looking for the suspect. Police told WABC they know where the suspect lives in the neighborhood.