Muslim beaten in N. Bellmore pushes for new protections

After a North Bellmore man allegedly beat a Muslim Uber driver unconscious with a flashlight in February, the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced that it was investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

Now, the driver, Anwar Syed, has come forward to help State Assemblyman Ron Kim, of Flushing, push for new legislation that would make attacking taxi and Uber drivers a felony on par with attacking Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers, while the defendant’s attorney claims that Syed is making up a story to create “racial hostility.”

At 1:15 a.m. on Feb. 19, Phillip Gannotta, 23, of Davenport Place, called the Uber car for a ride from Massapequa Park to a North Bellmore address, along with two friends. Once in North Bellmore, Gannotta and Syed got into an argument, Nassau County police said, and Gannotta got out of the car and began hitting and kicking it, breaking a window.

Gannotta then hit Syed several times in the face with a flashlight and kicked him in the face, causing facial fractures, according to police. Syed was taken to an area hospital.

Ibrahim Hooper, of CAIR, told the Herald that Syed, who has recovered from his injuries, contacted the organization and said that before the beating, Gannotta had asked him what faith he followed.

“He asked me, ‘Where you from?’ So I told him, ‘I’m from Pakistan.’ And then he asked me, ‘What is your religion?’ So I told him, ‘I’m Muslim,’ because I am Muslim,” Syed told WABC-TV last month, adding that he had spent five days in the hospital and that his 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son were traumatized.

Hooper said that CAIR was investigating the incident as a hate crime because of Syed’s allegations. But Gannotta’s attorney, Stephen Scaring, said on May 18 that he has witnesses who will testify that Syed’s account is a “made-up story.”

“The problem for the driver is that there were two other witnesses in the car who will testify that that never happened,” Scaring said. “It’s a made-up story and he’s trying to create some racial hostility.”

According to Scaring, Syed ran over Gannotta’s foot after he and the two other passengers got out of the car because Syed would not take them to the correct address.

“My understanding is … that the driver was dropping them off at the wrong spot and it was very late at night,” Scaring said. “The driver used some foul language and drove over my client’s foot, so according to the information we have and talking to the witnesses who were not charged, there was no discussion at any point other than them pleading with [Syed] to please take them to the proper address.”

Miriam Sholder, deputy communications director for the Nassau County district attorney’s office, declined to comment on the case.

Syed recently appeared with Assemblyman Kim, alongside other minority drivers for hire who claim to have been harassed or assaulted, at a press conference announcing the Taxi Driver Protection Act, which is currently being reviewed before being voted on in the Assembly and Senate.

“[Kim] says that he was horrified to hear about Syed’s injuries, and it sort of pushed him to try and get the [bill] onto the floor of this session sooner rather than later,” a spokesman for Kim told the Herald on Monday.

Gannotta was charged with two counts of second-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and third-degree criminal mischief, and is currently free on $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to make his next court appearance on July 17.