NYC man accused of violently shoving wheelchair-bound neighbor to the ground in spat over dogs: ‘How dare you?'
A Brooklyn man allegedly violently shoved a wheelchair-bound neighbor onto the pavement during a shocking caught-on-video squabble that some fear could stoke racial tensions in Crown Heights.
The incident erupted March 29 along Lincoln Place between Levi Kabakov and Troy McLeod, who was walking his two muzzled German Shepherds without leashes.
McLeod, 50, told News12 that Kabakov, 30, urged him to cross to the other side of the street with his dogs.
Kabakov, who is an Orthodox Jew, allegedly rushed out to the street, telling McLeod, who is black, he did not want the German Shepherds to scare his small children, McLeod explained to News12.
But before he could, Kabakov allegedly struck McLeod twice with a wooden bench from his yard before pushing him out of his wheelchair and into a parked car, the video — posted to Reddit — showed.
The wooden bench is visible in the 67-second-long clip. Kabakov and McLeod talk over each other as a second Orthodox man tries calming the irate dad. The woman filming the video repeatedly called out for someone to call 911, and yelled at Kabakov to stop touching McLeod.
The video caught Kabakov pushing McLeod hard, and overturning his chair. McLeod's head is seen slamming against the side of the parked vehicle.
'How can you do that to a man in a wheelchair? The children were fine,' said the woman recording, as other neighbors come to McLeod's defense, yelling, 'How dare you?' at Kabakov.
Police said Kabakov then threw a wooden block at McLeod while he was still on the ground.
'I was scared, I was trying to get back up, I was in shock and thank God someone was there,' McLeod told the station. 'It felt like a vengeful vibe to me. . . There was no need for it.'
McLeod told News12 his dogs were muzzled the entire walk, and noted they're so well-trained, they stood in place, even as he was being attacked.
McLeod told cops he sustained injuries to his hands, shoulders, and torso.
Kabakov was arrested the next day and charged with two counts each of assault, criminal possession of a weapon, aggravated menacing, and attempted assault.
He was arraigned that same day and released without bail pending a July 17 court appearance.
Kabakov did not respond to calls seeking comment. McLeod could not be reached for comment.
Crown Heights was the setting for one of the city's ugliest periods in August 1991 after a motorcade carrying Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of the Chabad Jewish religious movement, unintentionally struck and killed 7-year-old Gavin Cato, the son of Guyanese immigrants.
The boy's death led to a mob of black teens chanting 'Let's go get a Jew' to surround and kill 29-year-old Yankel Rosenbaum, an Orthodox Jewish graduate student from Australia. Three days of rioting damaged scores of Jewish businesses and homes.
District Leader Anthony Beckford condemned the attack on McLeod, and called on members of the community 'to not allow their anger about this situation manifest into hatred or resentment.'
He said he'll be urging District Attorney Eric Gonzalez's office 'to prosecute this case to the fullest extent, to make a clear example that behavior like this will not be tolerated by anyone.'
Rabbi Yaacov Behrman of the Jewish Future Alliance and Rabbi Shmuel Rosenstein and Rabbi Zalman Friedman from the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council issued a joint statement, reading, 'There is absolutely no justification for assaulting someone in a wheelchair — ever. The perpetrator has been arrested and charged.'
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I said, 'You were awful,' again, and to my surprise, he said, 'I'm sorry.' I was able to say, 'I forgive you.' This was the best part of the reunion!" "I was bullied/ostracized by a group of five boys when I was 15 years old and in the 10th grade. There was never any physical violence, however. The ringleader of the group was very scarred by his parents' very acrimonious divorce when we were both 14. He was jealous of kids like me who lived in loving and stable homes. At some point, he started using drugs to cope with the difficulties he had dealing with his parents' divorce. He resorted to burglary to help fund his drug habit and was sentenced to prison multiple times. As far as I know, he is still in prison in his senior years, although it's possible that he was released at some point." "A couple of years ago, I reconnected with a girl I knew in high school, and she invited me to a small holiday get-together with some other people we went to school with. No one there had really bullied me, but they were all aware it was happening at the time and were close with the girls who were really leading it. It came up that high school was a bit rough for me, but the conversation quickly moved on, and we had a nice night. The next day, the girl who invited me texted to thank me for coming and apologized for not being a better ally in high school." "I was pretty quiet in high school and kept mostly to myself. I was paired with a group of mean girls one day in class, and I complimented a girl on her prom dress and asked her where she got it. She told me not to bother since the store doesn't carry dresses in my size. The whole class heard her and laughed. I never considered myself 'bigger,' just average, but after that day, I never could get out of the mindset that everybody thought I was huge. That girl has three daughters, and I worry about how she talks to them." "My high school bully wasn't a bully in the traditional sense, but she was a compulsive liar who had our school administrators wrapped around her little finger and would make up these grandiose stories about how we (her classmates) had wronged her in an attempt to get us into trouble. She targeted me because I had been nice to her when she transferred into the district midway through eighth grade. She harassed me (and many others) over text and via social media as well. Everyone knew she was a pathological liar, but it didn't matter because the principal and deans believed her. The only time I got sent to the principal's office in all my years attending school in this district was because of her alleging that I was 'bullying her' in 11th grade. Last year (six years after graduating high school), I met a guy who grew up a few towns away from me and attended the same state college as her. He had even been roommates with her ex-boyfriend." "I was bullied relentlessly in junior high. I was small, an only child, and had glasses and a mouthful of braces. The girl who believed me the most actually sent me a long message on Facebook about how sorry she was, how she teaches her children to be different, and that her attitude was in response to her crappy home life. We are friends now, send each other Christmas cards, and even met for a glass of wine. After 30 years, let bygones be bygones. However, to this day, I am very particular about my appearance whenever I'm in public to prove that I'm not that girl from junior high anymore. Whenever I hear two people talking in low voices, I think they are talking about me. Bullying sticks with you for life. I'm in my 40s and still working through it." "One of the boys who made it his life goal to bully me came from a nice upper-class family, but he was totally low-class. In sixth grade, we had a class swim party, and he convinced all of the kids that I'd poison the pool and that I wasn't wanted there. I spent the rest of the party in the house, waiting until the end for my mom to come and get me. I never told my parents about it. By the time we got to high school, he'd dropped off the social map. I just found out that the bully died last year. He spent his entire adult life as a stoner, jumping from odd job to odd job. He had lots of chronic health problems related to his lifestyle choices. He lived in an old travel trailer on his cousin's farm." "I was a huge nerd and was bullied by a few girls in elementary school. A few years ago, one of them, out of the blue, messaged me to apologize and told me that she was just really jealous. I didn't realize it, but I was reading way ahead of my grade level, and she revealed that she was essentially illiterate at that point and was miserable. I hadn't thought about her in a decade, but she said it bothered her, and I appreciated it!" "I was bullied by a lot of kids in elementary school because I was small and quiet. One girl and her mother bullied me. Her mom was the Girl Scout leader. They were social-climbing snobs and even made fun of my mom's accent. They excluded me from activities. She approached me at our 40th class reunion and acted like I was her long-lost best friend. She was getting over cancer, which I wouldn't wish on anyone. We talked for a while, but I was pretty puzzled. Maybe her brush with death made her think about her choices. At earlier reunions, I just got the stink eye from her. Her besties, who were also bullies, also acted all sweet with me. I guess success is the best revenge because they were all surprised at how well I turned out. They're all doing fine, which is great. Sounds like they grew up. They were just following the lead of their snobby, social-climbing moms." "She was so cruel to me for years in high school. From the first day we met, she called me names and told horrible stories about me. She was absolutely awful! Especially about my weight because she was thin and popular, and I was the chunky nerd. Fast forward 25 years. I took a job as a teacher, and unbeknownst to me, she worked as an administrator in the gifted/talented department at the same school. We didn't interact much; she had gotten married, so she changed names and also looked very different. She knew it was me for over a year, but never said a word until one day, I realized who she was." "One was a guy who, for some weird reason, used to tease me relentlessly when we were in elementary and middle school. I have no idea why. He's now in prison for murdering someone. He became homeless, lived in an encampment, and got into it one night with some other guy and killed him. Another one was this awful girl from high school who, I swear, inspired Mean Girls. At some point, she was in an accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down, in a wheelchair, and lives alone in government housing. You'd think that would humble someone, but no. Her Facebook is still super rude, so I guess she hasn't changed." "I had one 'friend' bully me for my sexuality. She is now a mental health nurse." "We wound up becoming friends online. She had dropped out of school and gotten her GED. She's raising a child with her partner and has felt genuine remorse for middle school." "I was in high school in California, but moved to the Midwest for college, grad school, and stayed for work. Year after year, I would get reunion announcements from a bully girl who thought she was still in the in crowd. I finally emailed her that she should take me off the mailing list since I had no interest in reliving high school. Petty, but it felt good. She had married the football captain and never grew up." "He's a real estate agent in our area. I looked at his reviews, and they're all written by his friends from high school." "My bully and I ran into each other at an AA meeting that set all animosity aside. We are very close now." And: "Nothing special happened to mine. As far as I know, they continued living in my hometown, got married, and had kids like most people did. When they made my life hell, people said, 'Karma will get them back one day. They'll end up sad and alone,' but it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes, they end up happy and fulfilled. But I don't begrudge them that. I hope they grew up emotionally and realized that being cruel wasn't conducive to happiness." What happened to your childhood bully later in life? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
