A 20-year-old charged with hate crimes for allegedly assaulting three Jewish students had a stash of weapons, $750,000 in cash, and a phone filled with violent, anti-Semitic messages and pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah images, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors accused New Yorker Tarek Bazrouk, who’s been arrested six times for “his conduct at Israel/Gaza protests,” of assaulting the Jewish students between April 2024 and January 2025. Law enforcement searched his Manhattan apartment earlier this month and found brass knuckles (which are illegal in New York), four knives, a taser, an airsoft gun that looks identical to a real revolver, spent casings from an actual firearm, and $500,000 in cash, according to a May 7 filing. An additional search turned up another $250,000, a Wednesday filing revealed.
Bazrouk, however, lives with his parents. He said he has a net worth of $3,000 and that he’s “unemployed” and “supported by his parents,” the Wednesday filing said.
The recent filing dropped the same day that two Israeli embassy staffers were shot in cold blood outside the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Elias Rodriguez, the suspected killer who confessed to the slaying, then shouted “Free Palestine!” and “I did it for Gaza!”
Investigators found Bazrouk’s phone was littered with significant anti-Semitic sentiment, including messages espousing violence against Jews and images glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah. He also appeared to dox a young Jewish boy on social media.
On April 19, just four days after he first allegedly assaulted a Jewish student, Bazrouk messaged an unnamed associate saying, “These Zionists feening to dox me smh,” according to the May 7 filing. After the associate responded, “i’ll [sic] kill them,” Bazrouk wrote that if he ever saw a Jew, he’d “boom them.”
He also texted that he was “thinking about” lighting someone on fire when he ignited a flare during an April 2024 anti-Israel protest at Columbia University, the filing shows. In May, he told the same associate that he’d defend him if necessary. “You know I gothcu and if I don’t my gun do,” he wrote with a laughing emoji.
During a Sept. 17 exchange with the same associate, Bazrouk said “fuck” Jews, and “They are worthless.”
“Inshallah Allah get us rid of them,” he added.
“[Talk] about Hamas … I got family that are,” Bazrouk wrote. “I didn’t even know,” he added with a laughing emoji. “I’m mad happy wallah.”
His phone also included significant pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah propaganda, according to prosecutors. He was part of a group chat “that received regular updates” from Abu Obaida, the chief spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. His phone also contained a photo of Yahya Sinwar, the slain mastermind behind the Oct. 7 slaughter, holding peace signs above his head, among images glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah.
One picture showed a man with a machine gun sitting in what is likely a bunker with the caption, “By God, I would not trade the Al Q4ssam Brigades for the world and everything in it,” while another photographed a keffiyeh-clad man waving a Hamas flag as smoke from a green flare billows behind him. Another image depicted a man covered in a keffiyeh punching the back of an individual surrounded by masked anti-Israel protesters.
Bazrouk also posted an image of “what appears to be a young boy” to his Instagram account with a caption that said “1 OF THE ZIONISTS HAVE BEEN FOUND.” It included the name and address of a Jewish school in the Bronx for preschool through eighth grade.
Bazrouk executed his first alleged hate crime on April 15, 2024. According to prosecutors, he walked into a crowd of pro-Israel protesters while wearing a Hamas headband over a red keffiyeh and holding a Palestinian flag. The NYPD arrested him after he lunged at someone who tried taking the flag. As he was being taken to a police vehicle, he kicked a Jewish college student in the stomach and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” prosecutors said.
On Dec. 9, Bazrouk assaulted another Jewish Columbia student, according to prosecutors. He called pro-Israel protesters outside the university “Nazis,” said Jews stole land, and snatched an Israeli flag and ran. The student followed, but Bazrouk caught him off guard and punched him in the face and fled again.
Bazrouk assaulted a third Jewish victim on Jan. 6, prosecutors wrote. Bazrouk harassed the victim before punching him in the nose, said “Fuck you, Nazi,” and fled.
Bazrouk hasn’t been convicted previously, but he has been arrested on at least 12 separate occasions, including for “operating a drug factory,” according to the May 7 filing. When he was arrested in December 2024, he was caught with $25,000 worth of drugs and paraphernalia, including seven pounds of marijuana and an additional 1,000 pre-rolled joints.
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