A Queens man charged with mowing down a 71-year-old woman in a Jewish neighborhood has now been hit with hate crime charges for allegedly trashing a local kosher bagel shop twice just days earlier, prosecutors said Monday.
Dawood Faisal, 22, who was already behind bars on manslaughter charges in the May 25 death of Cara Trager on Union Parkway, was indicted on separate raps for allegedly vandalizing Bagels & Co., a Jewish-owned shop that displayed Israeli flags and banners, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.
According to prosecutors, Dawood, of Fresh Meadows, first vandalized the bagel shop shortly after 6:15 p.m. on May 15, knocking over nine metal plant stands outside, then picking up the dirt and hurling it at the building.
He allegedly returned on May 23 and pushed over and kicked 11 of the plant stands and threw dirt outside the shop, then uprooted greenery from a large clay pot and tossed it, the DA said.
Two days later, he allegedly sped through the neighborhood in his 2013 Toyota Prius doing 75 mph in the 35 mph zone, running a red light on Francis Lewis Boulevard and striking Trager and her husband, Michael — who miraculously survived.
Faisal fled the scene but he crashed the car and bystanders held him until cops arrived.
In June, he was indicted on manslaughter and assault charges, while Michael Trager launched a campaign to have the fatal hit-and-run designated a hate crime given the vandalism incidents.
“What I am alleging was that he was in a Jewish area, a very heavy Jewish area,” Trager said.
“And though he did not necessarily try to kill Cara Trager or injure Michael Trager or kill Michael Trager for that matter, it was a good likelihood that if he was gonna do that activity, it’s going to be more than likely hurt a Jewish person,” he said.
Faisal was initially arrested in July for the vandalism and was indicted this week on the hate crime raps tied to those incidents.
“As alleged, Dawood Faisal, repeatedly targeted a Fresh Meadows business specifically because it is Jewish-owned and featured Israeli flags, and destroyed property as an expression of antisemitism,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Monday.
“Bias crimes are an affront to our entire community and will not be tolerated,” she said.
