An anti-Semitic man barged into a Jewish nursing home Saturday night and threatened to rob and kill an elderly man, police said.
Alen Califano, from Yonkers, broke into University Avenue Assisted Living in the Bronx around 5.30pm Saturday, police told the New York Daily News.
The 41-year-old allegedly asked a security guard to use the bathroom in the home, but immediately started entering different apartments and destroying property.
He eventually ran up to the fourth floor, lit a joint, and entered an 84-year-old Jewish man’s apartment, according to police.
Alen Califano, from Yonkers, broke into University Avenue Assisted Living in the Bronx around 5.30pm Saturday, police told the New York Daily News
He is accused of running up to the fourth floor, lighting a joint, and entering an 84-year-old Jewish man’s apartment where he told the victim to give him his money and then assaulted him
Police told the Daily News Califano ordered the victim to give him his money.
When the victim refused, Califano allegedly said ‘I will kill you, you f***ing Jew.’
He then is said to have hit the elderly victim with a cardboard tube, cutting his mouth and forehead – and then allegedly picked up a fire extinguisher and threw it at the man, who blocked it.
Police were called and met Califano as he tried to flee the nursing home.
He was handcuffed and arrested and charged with attempted robbery, assault as a hate crime, burglary, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of marijuana, police told the Daily News.
Califano has had 10 prior arrests for crimes such as assault, menacing and criminal mischief.
Friends of the victim told NBC 4 that he is in high spirits despite the attack, and even went out for his birthday on Sunday with family members.
A security guard has been fired for allowing him to enter the nursing home and reach the fourth floor, one of the home’s owners said.
‘This isolated incident is the result of an unacceptable breach of protocol committed by a guard employed by the private firm contracted to provide security at this assisted-living facility,’ the home’s director Leslie Hoot told the Daily News.
‘The guard was fired immediately. We are relieved that are resident – a wonderful, kind and gentle man – did not sustain serious injury.
‘We are providing him with comfort, counseling, and excellent quality care.’