Roosevelt, NJ - Police Probe Paint-Ball Attack at Yeshiva

Roosevelt, NJ - A paint-ball attack on a dormitory for a yeshiva has not been ruled out as a religiously-motivated attack, according to the State Police.

The side of a private dwelling housing 10 to 15 students was struck by about 70 paint-ball pellets just after midnight, said Josh Pruzansky, executive vice president of Yeshiva Me'on Hatorah.  "In the past, it's been verbal harassment," Pruzansky said. "This is the first physical act and hopefully the last."  

State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jeanne Hengemuhle said the incident is under investigation and witnesses are being interviewed. "We welcome any information that anyone has," Hengemuhle said.

Pruzansky said on occasion people will drive past the yeshiva and shout epithets from their vehicle windows.  "The world still has many biases, and there are many prejudices," said Pruzansky, who suspects that the perpetrators behind the attack may hold those biases. 

"I don't know exactly who it is," he said. "The theory is that there was a pickup truck with someone sitting in the back with the paint balls while someone was driving the pickup. It's just a theory."   Pruzansky said that prior harassers have come in a pickup truck, and tire tracks found at the scene match the tracks of such a truck.