http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/21/2008-01-21_five_thugs_jump_yeshiva_student.html
Five thugs jump Yeshiva student
BY JESS WISLOSKI and TINA MOORE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, January 21st 2008, 4:00 AM
Maisel/News
Samuel Balkany, 16, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, needed staple to close gash after being attacked Friday night.
*-- ARTICLE CONTENT START *
A
16-year-old Yeshiva student who told cops he was beaten by five black
teens shouting hate-filled slurs said Sunday the attack has left him
terrified - fearful of even walking outside his Brooklyn home.
A
medical staple juts from a deep gash in the side of Samuel Balkany's
head, a grim reminder of the ambush in Crown Heights at 10.30 p.m. on
Friday.
"They were saying, 'Oh, little Jew boy, you think you own this neighborhood,'" Samuel said. "'Who are you, f---ing Jew?'"
Samuel, a Lubavitch Hasidic, said he exchanged no words with the teens before the attack.
They were not trying to rob him, he said.
"I
was just getting clobbered," added Samuel, who said doctors told him
the attackers must have used a rock or some other sharp object.
"I was screaming for help but nobody was there."
After the beating, Samuel ran to his friend's house, where his pal's mother called 911.
"I have a lot of deep holes in my head, one deep gash," he said. "All over my body, I have black and blue marks."
Cops were investigating the beating as a possible hate crime.
"Now,
last night, I walked to my friend's. And I didn't want to walk home,"
he said. "It's a difficult ordeal to live in a community and not be
able to walk to your friend's house."
Samuel is hoping politicians will work harder to make things right.
"I think we've been a little bit abandoned," Samuel said.
"I
hope one of the higher-ups at City Hall - [Police Commissioner] Ray
Kelly, [Mayor] Bloomberg - can come to Crown Heights and show us
solidarity in this community," Samuel said.
"It can't go on."
[email protected]
