Crown Heights erupts in three days of race riots in 1991
BY RICH SCHAPIRO GINGER ADAMS OTIS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, August 13, 2016, 11:24 PM
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AN AUG. 21, 1991 FILE PHOTO
For three days in 1991, Crown Heights was roiled in riots. Blacks and Lubavitcher Jews faced off again and again in clashes. (DAVID BURNS/AP)
It was dusk on a Monday in August 25 years ago when the sound of a loud crash filled a busy Crown Heights street where 7-year-old Gavin Cato and his cousin Angela Cato were playing.
Angela, also 7, had just finished taking a turn on Gavin?s bike. And Gavin was fiddling with the bike chain when the boom split the air.
The boy?s father, Carmel Cato, then 38, was watching from a few feet way. An immigrant from Guyana, Cato had just come home from work. He?d brought Gavin and Angela outside to practice with the bike in front of their home on President St.
?They were riding on the street. I was standing there looking. Because of my nervousness, I said you?re going to ride from there to this point, where I can see you,? the father, now 63, told the Daily News.
Riots erupt in Crown Heights in 1991
Gavin Cato
Angela Cato
Gavin Cato was killed, and Angela Kato was injured, in the August 1991 crash that set off the Crown Heights riots.
?Sometimes, I beat myself up, thinking why did I do that? If I had left him alone, it might never have happened.?
When the screech of metal-on-metal tore through the late-summer chatter on the residential Brooklyn street, only Carmel Cato saw what was coming.
?At the same time I was looking at (Gavin), I saw this car coming through, and I said, ?Oh God!?? the father recalled.
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson was riding in the car that struck the two black children.
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson was riding in the car that struck the two black children.
?This car was on him. I tried to pick it up by myself. I used my hands under the car, both arms. With all my weight, I tried to pick that car up but I couldn?t ... I was speechless. I still keep thinking, ?What happened???
SHARPTON: Underlying issues came to light in Crown Heights
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Twenty-five years after the tragic car accident that sparked the Crown Heights riots ? three days of unremitting turmoil that pitted angry Hasidic Jews against outraged African-American and Caribbean residents ? elements of that question still linger in the neighborhood.
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Cops investigate the scene after a Mercury Grand Marquis driven by Yosef Lifsh struck two children.
But on the details of Gavin?s death, the official record is clear: On Aug. 19, 1991, at roughly 8:20 p.m., a vehicle that was part of a three-car motorcade carrying Menachem Schneerson, grand rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic community, struck and killed Gavin Cato and seriously injured his cousin Angela.
She nearly bit through her tongue and lost half an ear.
Crown Heights residents look back on the 1991 riots
As the two children lay bloody and trapped beneath the vehicle, driver Yosef Lifsh, 22, a Hasidic Jew, gaped in horror at his path of destruction.
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Cato family relatives wait for news about Gavin and Angela after they were struck. (KEN MURRAY/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
Lifsh had been the last car in a trio of vehicles escorting Schneerson home from a visit to the graves of his wife and the former grand rebbe.
The lead vehicle was a 71st Precinct police car ? because the rebbe had an NYPD escort for all his cemetery visits. It was just one of many privileges police afforded the Jewish community in Crown Heights that raised resentment among black residents, who had a much more turbulent relationship with the NYPD.
The second vehicle contained the grand rebbe himself. The NYPD, in justifying its regular escort of Schneerson, likened him to the Jewish equivalent of the Pope. Such a high-profile religious figure required police protection, cops said.
NYPD, FDNY caught in the middle during 1991 Crown Heights riots
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The NYPD was also caught flatfooted during the first hours of the unrest.
Behind the cops and the rebbe was Lifsh in a 1984 Mercury Grand Marquis station wagon.
When Lifsh?s wagon approached the President St. and Utica Ave. intersection, the lead cop car was rushing through a green light at the busy crossroads. The grand rebbe?s car also raced through the green light. By the time Lifsh hit the intersection, the light had turned red, according to some witnesses. Lifsh and his passengers, twin brothers Levi and Yaakov Spielman, later told officials the light was yellow.
As Lifsh zoomed through the intersection going west, his station wagon collided with a 1981 Chevrolet Malibu headed north. The impact sent Lifsh?s vehicle careening onto the sidewalk. It pinned Gavin and Angela against the brick exterior of a four-story apartment building.
The riots led to one death, 29-year-old Yankel Rosenbaum, who was stabbed and killed by Lemrick Nelson.
The riots led to one death, 29-year-old Yankel Rosenbaum, who was stabbed and killed by Lemrick Nelson.
The next sequence of events was much murkier ? and the confusion fed the rage that flared over the next three days.
Relatives of 2 killed in Crown Heights riots to meet
Lifsh, who claimed he jumped from the car as soon as he could to try to help the children, was attacked by an angry crowd. His passenger Levi Spielman told police he tried to call 911 from a portable phone, but was punched and beaten so aggressively he couldn?t complete the call.
A black man pulled him from the mob, and yelled, ?He?s mine, and I?m going to have him arrested!?
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Mayor David Dinkins was booed and pelted wherever he went, including a visit to PS 167 during the height of the tempers.
The black man hauled him out of sight around a corner and let him go, Spielman told cops, according to a state report on the riots issued in 1993.
?You owe me one,? he told the terrified Hasid.
Crown Heights leaders who helped heal racial tensions reunite
By 8:22 p.m., two 71st Precinct cops were on the scene. A Hatzolah ambulance was next to pull up, followed at 8:25 p.m. by a crew of city emergency medical technicians who promptly radioed for paramedics. The two 71st Precinct cops, unable to control the swelling and volatile group of Jews and blacks ? some of whom were still beating up on Lifsh ? also sent urgent calls for backup.
A man watches an overturned car burn in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
A man watches an overturned car burn in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The whole time, an unidentified black man labored over Gavin?s body, giving him CPR.
As fists and bottles began flying, two more police officers arrived and grabbed Lifsh, and told the Hatzolah medics to take him to safety.
When the crowd saw an ambulance pulling away with the Jewish driver, leaving the two children on the ground, the long-simmering cauldron of racial and religious tensions between the black and Hasidic communities ? fueled by clashes over housing, city resources, political access to local community boards and alleged preferential treatment from police ? exploded.
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Cops escort a bloody Pierre Regis after he tried to run down cops with his sports car in 1991. (DONOFRIO, CARMINE)
?You saw a bunch of Hasidic Jews come out of nowhere,? said witness Josslin Glover, 38, who was a 13-year-old standing on the corner when the riot jumped off.
?They rushed their guy (the driver) off the scene. They were only focused on him. They didn?t care about the kids that were hit. That?s what set the whole thing off. Everyone was angry. They started looting, breaking windows. It was chaos for days,? he recalled.
By 9 p.m., with both Gavin and Angela Cato transported to Kings County Hospital, where Gavin was pronounced dead, the NYPD?s accident investigation squad had moved in.
An injured man is tended to by cops during the riots between blacks and Jews.
An injured man is tended to by cops during the riots between blacks and Jews. (ROCA, JOHN)
The rumor swelled and spread at lightning speed: The Hatzolah crew had ignored Gavin and Angela Cato and only helped the Jewish driver.
By 9:07 p.m., 911 was getting calls about a riot at President St. and Utica Ave. Bottles, objects and racial slurs were hurled with equal venom. Chants of ?The Jews killed the kids!? filled the street.
Shots rang out along Utica Ave., and roving gangs of Jewish and black youth started attacking each other and random pedestrians.
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The Jewish community was sharply critical of the NYPD for not taking strong enough action to protect them and their property.
A witness told cops an agitator had climbed onto a car and started shouting, ?Do you feel what I feel? Do you feel the pain? What are you going to do about it? Let?s take Kingston Ave.!?
The crowd streamed after him along President St., breaking car windows and overturning at least one vehicle, while another was set on fire. At 10:30 p.m., a member of City Hall?s community assistance unit hit the panic button.
?The s--- is hitting the fan,? the aide told his supervisor and the City Hall police desk, describing huge objects raining down on cars and police being tackled to the ground. As he got in his car, it was pelted with rocks.
The black residents felt cops cracked down on them much harder than on the Hasidim engaged in street battles and protests.
The black residents felt cops cracked down on them much harder than on the Hasidim engaged in street battles and protests. (ROCA, JOHN)
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In the first hours of the riots, Mayor David Dinkins and Police Commissioner Lee Brown, both in Manhattan, had no inkling that Crown Heights was about to experience the worst episode of racial violence the city had seen in 20 years ? and leave an indelible mark on both their careers.
The NYPD was also caught flatfooted. The 71st Precinct, at the epicenter of the riots, had just that day welcomed its new commander, Capt. Vincent Kennedy. He was at a B.B. King concert in Wingate Field in Brooklyn at 9 p.m. Only after he went to President St. and Utica Ave. and had to duck from the raining debris did he order 30 more officers to the scene.
Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old scholar, was killed during the melee.
Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old scholar, was killed during the melee. (AP)
But it took until roughly 1 a.m. before a full contingent of 350 offers flooded the intersection. By then it was too late, at least for Yankel Rosenbaum.
Rosenbaum, 29, a Hasidic scholar from Australia, was walking at President St. and Brooklyn Ave. when a roving band of about 15 black youths surrounded him just after midnight. While there had been several reported beatings of Jewish men that night, the emotion didn?t turn deadly until Rosenbaum ran into a black teen named Lemrick Nelson.
Nelson, 16, stabbed Rosenbaum four times in a mob attack and then ran off as police approached. He was picked up moments later and brought back to the scene. Rosenbaum, conscious and talking, identified him to the cops, then cursed Nelson and spit on him. Three hours later, Rosenbaum died at Kings County Hospital.
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Lemrick Nelson Jr., 16 at the time, stabbed and killed Yankel Rosenbaum in the hours after the riots began. (ANONYMOUS/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Mayor Dinkins and Commissioner Brown, who went to the hospital to talk to Carmel Cato and Rosenbaum, were devastated to learn the young Hasidic scholar died.
Over the next three days, Crown Heights was roiled in riots. Blacks and Lubavitcher Jews faced off again and again in clashes, mostly in front of 770 Eastern Parkway, the Lubavitcher headquarters, and at President St. and Utica Ave.
The Jewish community was sharply critical of the NYPD for not taking strong enough action to protect them and their property. The black residents felt cops cracked down on them much harder than on the Hasidim engaged in street battles and protests.
More than 1,800 cops were called in to restore order after the riots in Crown Heights.
More than 1,800 cops were called in to restore order after the riots in Crown Heights. (ROCA, JOHN)
Even with complaints coming in from all sides, Dinkins didn?t order a change in police tactics until he experienced Crown Heights? wrath for himself ? on Wednesday, when the tensions reached a fever pitch.
At 4 p.m., black demonstrators marching past the Lubavitcher headquarters intersected with Police Commissioner Brown, who was in a car headed to Public School 167, where Dinkins was going to speak. Brown?s police car was mobbed and vandalized. He had to duck inside the school while a 10-13 call ? police code for an officer in distress ? was transmitted for ?Car One.?
When Dinkins got to PS 167 a few minutes later, he was greeted with jeers from about 50 black teens ? and when he came out later, they shouted and threw bottles at him.
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Fallout from Crown Heights was a major reason why former Mayor David Dinkins wasn't reelected in 1993.
At his next stop, Carmel Cato?s house, Dinkins was pelted and booed again. The scope of the disaster finally hit home for Brown and Dinkins.
Some 600 people stormed through Crown Heights that night. People were assaulted in cars, two people were shot, a firehouse was attacked and a sniper ? firing from the roof of a Schenectady Ave. building ? wounded eight officers.
At midnight, after Dinkins visited the officers at Kings County Hospital, he gathered police union officials, top commanders and his deputy mayor to talk with Brown about the police tactics.
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A message is posted on a wall where Gavin Cato was killed when he was hit by a car, touching off riots in Crown Heights.
Brown was told he had to ?immediately end? the violence. His first deputy commissioner, Raymond Kelly, was assigned the task of devising a new strategy.
By Thursday, 1,800 police officers were on the streets ? much more than Tuesday and Wednesday. More arrests were made on Thursday than during the three previous days combined. By nightfall, relative order was restored.
The political fallout from Crown Heights was felt for years ? tanking the second-term dreams for Dinkins.
While the Hasidim and African-American and Caribbean residents now share their space more comfortably, many of the old-time community leaders who helped broker peace 25 years ago are still in the neighborhood doing the same work.
?Peacekeeping is the real science of it,? said Richard Green, head of the Crown Heights Youth Collective, an outreach program that serves black and Hasidic teens. ?We?ve been peacekeeping for the last 25 years.?
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