Video shows vandals smashing Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s office with a hammer and red paint: ‘Free Gaza’
The hateful anti-Israel vandals who tried to destroy Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s Washington Heights office were caught in surveillance footage exclusively obtained by The Post.
The footage shows two thugs — wearing hoods and surgical masks — beginning Tuesday’s rampage by lifting a roller door that had been protecting the workplace of the lawmaker, who has been targeted before over his support for the Jewish community.
As the 90-second clip continues, one of the masked vandals begins viciously hammering at the glass windows, while the other begins to saturate the area in blood-red spray paint before they both leave abruptly.
Congressman Espaillat said he was shocked to find shattered glass and pools of red paint with the words “FREE GAZA” scrawled in black on the sidewalk.
Still, he knew he would be a target for anti-Israel groups protesting on Oct 7, noting that he’d been named on a flier, Espaillat told The Post on Tuesday.
“Instead of appealing for peace, for a solution to the conflict and justice, they resorted to violence and vandalism which I thought was really sad and unfortunate,” said the congressman, who has spoken up when students have been attacked by anti-Israel groups.
Police and Espaillat confirmed that as many as four suspects had come to destroy the congressman’s office, although the footage only shows two people. It is being investigated as a hate crime.
The vandalism was reported at 4:15 a.m., but Espaillat said it happened around 3 a.m.
He and his staff have worked around the clock to clean up the mess, despite the incident leaving the five staff who work there shaken, Espaillat revealed.
This was the second attack on the Washington Heights office which was spray painted by a vandal on Sept 27 as well. The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating both cases.
The incident comes one year since Hamas terrorists’ brutal attack on Israel — killing 1,200 innocent Israelis and taking 250 hostage — that incited war in the region. Ninety-seven hostages are still being held captive in Gaza.
Thousands of anti-Israel protesters swarmed Manhattan, with one group — led by Within Our Lifetime — starting on Wall St. and moving uptown, growing to about 2,000 people.
Another throng of protestors also descended upon Washington Square Park before migrating uptown on Monday.
Throughout the day, seven anti-Israel protesters were busted at Manhattan demonstrations — including a 23-year-old New Jersey man accused of kicking an NYPD captain in the chest.
Of the seven taken into custody, two were released with summonses, and five face charges that require court arraignments, cops said.
