Who is Sina Rezaie? NYC doc called 'f****t', thrashed in 'hate crime' that broke his jaw
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: Following an attack in Greenwich Village over the holiday weekend, a New York City doctor is recovering in the hospital after emergency surgery to repair a fractured jaw. The attack, which took place on the morning of Saturday, July 3, was motivated by hate, the doctor said, according to news outlets.
Hate crime has been on a steady rise across the United States. In an incident last May, a Sikh man was beaten with a hammer at a Brooklyn hotel, prompting a call to action from local residents who labeled it a "hate crime." Earlier this month, Boston man Khaled Awad was been arraigned on assault charges after he brutally stabbed a rabbi on July 1.
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Last month, Nathaniel Veltman, a 20-year-old pickup truck driver mowed down a Muslim family of 4 in a purported 'hate crime' in Ontario, Canada. In May, a young man was seen sucker-punching an elderly Asian-American woman.
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Who is Sina Rezaie?
Sina Rezaie, 29, is a Jacksonville resident. His Instagram profile has several fashionable pictures of him with friends and family. It looks like he enjoys traveling and plays the violin. He also has a picture of him attending the white coat ceremony at St George's University School of Medicine.
In Saturday's case, he told NBC New York that he was heading home from the Greenwich Village subway station when he was accosted by a man who screamed a homophobic insult at him. Rezaie said that his jaw was fractured in two places when the suspect struck him from behind.
"He called me a f****t and then half a block later, he came from behind and kicked and punched me multiple times," Rezaie said speaking to NBC New York from his hospital bed. Witnesses said Rezaie stumbled to a neighboring pub for assistance after collapsing. Laurie Beck and Richard Delay, both friends of Rezaie, were at work at the time and did everything they could to aid while waiting for authorities, the news outlet reported.
"I just kind of saw our friend walking outside kind of erratically and I called [Delay's] attention 'go see what's going on with our neighbor, it looks like he's distressed.' [Daley] went outside to check it out, then he starts waving to me so I grabbed a bottle of water and some paper towels and ran outside," Beck said. Delay said that he saw him "holding his mouth, blood running out from the face. He said that he had gotten attacked by some guy who said something to him as he came off the train. Apparently, the guy called him a slur and then threw him to the ground, and started kicking him repeatedly."
Rezaie claimed he "always felt comfortable" in the area before the incident and is baffled as to why he was the victim of a vicious hate crime. “I don’t know why this happened to me,” he said. Despite there being security cameras all throughout the neighborhood, police are yet to apprehend the suspect.
In an Instagram post on Monday, Rezaie, who was badly hurt, thanked friends, family, and well-wishers for their support. "Just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who have donated, shared my story, and/or reached out. Helping me get through this. I’m at a loss for words and so touched. I’m home now, still very swollen, so difficult to speak, and in pain but first follow-up appt is tomorrow. Thank you and love you all," he wrote, according to the Daily Mail.
In the aftermath of the attack, the 29-year-old doctor's friends have stepped forward to assist him in his rehabilitation. To help pay for his medical costs, one of them started a crowdfunding effort with a GoFundMe that had garnered almost $11,118 so far. Rezaie's jaw will be fused shut for the next few weeks, according to the GoFundMe, so that his injuries can heal correctly. Rezaie's jaw is swollen after surgery, according to the campaign's organizer, Sammy Daylor, who told News4Jax that he is unable to talk. New York City cops are investigating if the seemingly random attack on Saturday morning was motivated by hatred.