New York City police over the weekend arrested a man accused of finger-drawing a swastika on a Jewish man’s Cybertruck in protest of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is President Trump’s chief bureaucracy cutter.
Authorities took Michael Lewis, 42, into custody on charges of aggravated harassment Saturday after the Cybertruck owner saw the suspect double-park his car next to the electric vehicle, jump out and draw the symbol in the dust on his truck.
Avi Ben Hamo, the victim, told the New York Post he saw the suspect defacing his vehicle from across the street and sprinted out in front of his car to prevent him from driving away.
That’s when the suspect ditched his ride and ran away, Mr. Ben Hamo said.
The suspect returned to his car 90 minutes later to find the victim, four police officers and a New York Post reporter waiting for him at the scene. The Post first reported the incident by reviewing security footage of the defacement.
“People hating Elon Musk is one thing, but to do something like this is next level,” Mr. Ben Hamo told the newspaper. “I’m speechless. That’s just wrong.”
An attorney for Mr. Lewis, the suspect, said his client is also Jewish and no damage was done to the car.
“He did not commit a crime of any kind,” said attorney Mark Luccarelli, adding that the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office released Mr. Lewis without pursuing charges.
The dust-up in New York City follows nearly two months of vandalism attacks on Tesla dealerships and charging stations in an act of rebellion against Mr. Musk’s mission to downsize the federal government.
Assailants have shot up empty showrooms and destroyed vehicles with Molotov cocktails in attacks reported in Oregon, Massachusetts, Colorado and Washington state.
Police have only made a few arrests in the nearly dozen targeted property crimes, including a man linked to torching a Tesla vehicle and shooting up a dealership in Oregon, and a transgender woman tied to igniting a Molotov cocktail and spray painting the word “Nazi” at a Colorado dealership.
House Republicans on the Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee — which shares the same name as Mr. Musk’s DOGE agency that is sniffing out wasteful federal spending — urged the FBI to investigate Democratic fundraisers for possible connections to the vandalism.
Mr. Trump has also said he would label the attacks as “domestic terrorism” since there is a suspected political motivation behind them.
