Colonie police ID suspect in hate crime committed at The Crossings

Aug 20, 2019 Jim Franco Crime, News

COLONIE — Police have identified the man suspected of committing a hate crime by threatening a Muslim family on Monday, Aug. 19 at The Crossings.

According to Lt. Robert Winn, at around 5:32 p.m. the suspect made “disparaging and life threatening remarks to the victim and family based on their religion, Muslim.”

In a post on Facebook, Rashad Mohamed Benantar said he was at the playground with his

nephews and a man approached them “shouting racist comments.” According to the post, the man said “your prophet is a dog and this is a Christian country … etc.”

“After I confronted him he said word for word: “You came here today to die, you’re going to die,” Banantar wrote.

Banantar said the man, who said he was a police officer, noticed he was calling 911 and fled the scene in a white Mercedes SUV.

He posted photos of the man and his vehicle and urged people to share the information because “we need to identify this individual.”

Winn said the man is not a Colonie police officer and is not familiar to anyone at the department. The information provided by Banantar was disseminated to local and statewide law enforcement and a positive identification was made. There were no arrests made or expected on Tuesday, Winn said.

When the man is arrested, he could face the felony of aggravated harassment, Winn said.

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Jim Franco