Father of spraying cop in Boro Park: "My son is mentally ill"

Boro Park neighborhood is still raging at the graffiti raid held on Saturday night by a former police officer, on twenty major Haredi objectives in the neighborhood. Before joining the police he worked in a cosmetics factory from which he was dismissed too.

Yesterday (Sunday) members of the New York City Council published condemnations of the act. The local police leadership is in great embarrassment, since for years it worked on building a relationship of trust with the Haredi community in Brooklyn, and there is concern that the fact that this is a former policeman would cloud the relationship.

The Haredi Sen. R' Simcha Felder said that it is very alarming that whoever did the criminal act was a cop. "I thank G-d that it is an act of one deranged person, not an entire group," Felder said. "We must send a message to criminals that perform such actions, that we will not tolerate such behavior and everyone will be punished. Cowards fleeing the area should know that we will find them at the end, even if it is a former police officer, and they will be prosecuted."

Senior police officers who immediately recognized the graffiti perpetrator, recognized the need to prosecute the offender. "They woke me up at five in the morning," said Thomas Steven - the father of the suspect - to Associated Press network. "I got a call from the police asking me if my son is home. [The suspect lives with his parents in Queens Y.B.] I went to my son's room and woke him, up a few minutes later police knocked on the door. I asked my son what happened, worrying whether someone was wounded, but he replied dryly, 'Don't worry, everything is all right."

He said on Saturday at around eight in the evening, his son asked for the keys to the family car to get something. "After a few minutes that he didn't come back, I looked out and saw the car was gone. My wife and I started to worry because our son is not healthy, he suffers from mental health problems and depression, and even tried to commit suicide after he was fired from the police."

The father also told that on Sunday morning , when his son Michael was placed in handcuffs, Michael's little son was in the house. He said he has yet to select a lawyer, and he should stand before a judge today.

As recalled. It all began immediately after Shabbos, when Hashomrim organization of the neighborhood was inundated with phone calls and inquiries by Haredi residents in the neighborhood, who complained about graffiti written in red spray on vehicles, halls, gas stations, the school building of Bobov and more.

Police was updated immediately, and meanwhile films from security cameras which documented the case, began streaming in. In one of the films Michael Steven's image is clearly seen, but none of the security videos show the license number of the white Mercedes with which he came. The one who saved the day was a 10 year old boy who noticed the suspect and tried to memorize the license plate number of the vehicle. The boy told his father, who quickly update Hashomrim, and so the former cop was captured.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!