The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is offering a reward of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any co-conspirators or individuals who rendered criminal assistance in the 1994 murder of Ari Halberstam and the attempted murder of 14 teenagers on the Brooklyn Bridge.
The organization is searching for anyone with additional information on the March 1, 1994 murder of Halberstam, 16, who was shot on the Brooklyn Bridge when a Lebanese-born terrorist and livery driver, Rashid Baz, opened fire on a van carrying him and 14 other yeshiva students.
During his arrest, Baz was found to be in possession of anti-Jewish literature, a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, a stun gun, a bulletproof vest, and two 50-round ammunition magazines.
Baz pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but the jury rejected his defense and found him guilty of second-degree murder plus 14 counts of attempted murder on December 1, 1994. He was sentenced to 141 years to life in prison.
Baz, who died in prison last year, is no longer a potential source of information in the case but witnesses testified that on the day of the shooting, the gunman had attended “a raging anti-Semitic sermon” by the Egyptian-born imam Sheikh Reda Shata at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge.
An active leader of the Muslim Community in the United States, Shata is currently the Imam of Al-Aman Mosque and leader of the Islamic Society of Monmouth County, in Middletown, NJ.
“Sheik Reda Shata’s quotes glorifying terrorism, and the involvement of some of his congregants in terrorist activity, belie the portrait of a moderate religious leader presented in the three-part series about him and the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge,” said Yehudit Barsky, who has devoted her career to the study of Islamist terrorist organizations and movements.
The New York Times published a series of three articles on Shata in March 2006, which portrayed him in sympathetic detail and were written by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott.
“The death of Ari Halberstam was indisputably an antisemitic terrorist attack and a hate crime that sent shock waves through the Jewish community and the entire country,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt. “We greatly appreciate the federal government’s efforts to seek justice against Baz and his co-conspirators. But the question remains: Were others involved as part of a larger conspiracy? We hope that this new reward will incentivize anyone who has any information in this case to step forward.”
Despite his defense’s claim that the shooting was initially prompted by a traffic dispute, Baz was convicted in a jury trial of one count of murder and 14 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to serve 141 years in prison.
Baz subsequently admitted that he intentionally targeted Jews and had pre-planned the assault, following the van as it made its way into Brooklyn. The murder has since been reclassified as a terrorist incident by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.
“I applaud the ADL’s unwavering commitment to exposing and combatting antisemitic violence, and to working together with the law enforcement community to hold the perpetrators of this egregious civil rights violation accountable,” said Devorah Halberstam, Ari’s mother. “With their help, I’m hopeful that all of the perpetrators of the horrific anti-Semitic terrorist attack on the Brooklyn Bridge – not just Rashid Baz, but everyone involved – can finally be brought to justice.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.