Brooklyn, NY - The head
of Borough Park’s Shomrim is disputing an account that ran in today’s New YorkPost, which accused Shomrim members of provoking an attack on a Brooklyn man
which led to the shooting of four members of the citizens patrol group in 2010.
As previously reported on
VIN News, 37 year old David Flores was acquitted last month of attempted murder
and 14 other charges after the 2010 incident which sent four members of Shomrim
to the hospital, convicted only on a single charge of illegal possession of a
gun.
According to the New York
Post story, the first interview given by
the defendant since the verdict was handed down on November 27th, Flores was
driving to a Brooklyn bakery when his car was surrounded by an angry mob of
approximately 20 Chasidic men, after a van stopped short in front of his
vehicle in Borough Park.
The group allegedly
banged on his windows, kicked his doors and shouted racial slurs, with one
Shomrim member waving a gun at Flores.
As Flores, who claims he feared for his life, attempted to escape his
car, he was grabbed and beaten and only then, according to Flores, did he began
firing.
Nothing could be farther
from the truth, according to Shomrim coordinator Yanky Daskal, who said that
Flores, who has been arrested numerous times, had a history of exposing himself
to children in the area.
“911 had already been
called on him a week before,” Daskal told VIN News. “By the time police came he
was long gone, but we had his description and a plate number. When we got a call a week later that he was
exposing himself to kids again, we called 911 and we followed his car.”
As Flores, who according
to Daskal knew he was being followed, turned into 46th Street on September 2nd
2010, he was blocked by a vehicle that was trying to park.
“There was a hachnasas
Sefer Torah and the Satmar Rebbe was there, it was a huge crowd,” recalled
Daskal. “We were on the street and we
made sure not to approach him, touch him or say anything to him.”
After getting out of his
car and seeing Shomrim members approaching on foot, Flores took a .22 caliber
handgun out of his pocket.
“He shot one of our
members in the stomach from quite a few feet away,” said Daskal. “After that we jumped him. He shot again and again, even shooting
himself. We were just trying to get the gun away.
It was chaos.”
While the Post article
quotes Flores as saying that Shomrim members mistook him for a Muslim because
of his small woven cap and hurled racial epithets during the incident, Daskal
categorized that statement as an outright lie.
“No one shouted any
slurs,” said Daskal.
Flores did not testify in
his trial but faces five to 15 years in prison on the illegal weapons charge.
By: Sandy Eller -
No comments:
Post a Comment