NYC banker allegedly seen punching woman at Pride event surrenders to police
Jonathan Kaye allegedly punched a woman on June 8 and sent her tumbling onto the pavement
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A man accused of punching a woman in the face during a Pride and anti-Israel event surrendered to police Monday, authorities said.
Video footage posted to social media allegedly shows Jonathan Kaye, 52, striking a woman, sending her tumbling onto the pavement, as he flees the area after the June 8 Brooklyn Pride event.
He was arrested and charged with third-degree assault, third-degree menacing and second-degree harassment, the Brooklyn DA's office said. A spokesperson for the DA's office told Fox News Digital that Kaye turned himself in to police.
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Jonathan Kaye is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD's 78th Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn on Monday. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The woman, who identified herself as Micah P, told NBC New York that the blow broke her nose in four places.
"When we saw him walk by we immediately, like, kind of just turned to each other and were like, ‘Don’t engage with that guy. He seems drunk or unhinged or something,’" she told the news outlet. "He seemed very angry when he walked by."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kaye allegedly called them "useful idiots" and continued down the block until she asked him what he said, she said.
He then turned around and began moving towards the victim, who said she splashed Kaye with water. The swing prompted shocked gasps from onlookers.
A source told Fox News Digital that it was a group of demonstrators who initiated the physical altercation after Kaye, who is Jewish, commented that they were "on the wrong side" of an anti-Israel protest.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Four people from a group the source described as either "Queers for Palestine" or "Trans for Palestine" allegedly surrounded Kaye after he spoke out.
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They started throwing a "red liquid" on him as he attempted to back away from them, according to the source. Photos of his clothes show the stains and a bloody leg injury.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kaye wound up on the ground, bleeding from his leg, according to the source.
"Mr. Kaye, a middle-aged Jewish man with no history of violence or aggression, was terrorized, assaulted, and surrounded by a group of unruly antisemitic protesters," Kaye's lawyer, Danya Perry, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "What the previously released video clip does not show is what another video and other evidence we have shared with the District Attorney does show: that these agitators formed a ring at him, doused him with two unknown liquids, shoved him to the ground, and hurled antisemitic slurs at him. Terrified and injured, Mr. Kaye managed to act in self-defense to escape the situation and return safely to his family."
At the time of the alleged assault, Kaye was employed by Moelis & Co., a Manhattan investment bank, where he was a managing director.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The source said Kaye suffered a leg injury when he fell, resulting in a long bloody scrape. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
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"As previously communicated, Jonathan Kaye has resigned and is no longer with the firm," a Moelis spokesperson told Fox News Digital.