Three individuals have been charged with “making a terroristic threat as a hate crime” in connection with the vandalism of four Brooklyn Museum leaders’ homes this summer, according to a statement from Brooklyn District Attorney (DA) Eric Gonzalez today, November 4.
The residences of Director Anne Pasternak, Board Chair Barbara Vogelstein, Board Treasurer Neil Simpkins, and President and Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Panicek Trueblood were graffitied with anti-Zionist messages and splashed with red paint on June 12, two weeks after a heavily policed pro-Palestine protest at the museum.
In an anonymous comment to Hyperallergic in June, a group who claimed responsibility for the graffiti said that the action was a response to the Brooklyn Museum’s “shameless complicity in genocide,” citing the response to the May 31 protest as well as museum donors’ connections to investments in the Israeli military. (A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Museum had previously said that the institution did not call the police and condemned “the police brutality that took place.”)
The graffiti vandalism instantly drew accusations of antisemitism from local and national officials. Initial reports including one in the New York Times misidentified all four Brooklyn Museum officials as Jewish; only Pasternak is Jewish, a correction later clarified.
However, in his statement, Gonzalez claims that the three accused individuals “allegedly targeted members of the Brooklyn Museum’s Board of Directors who have Jewish-sounding names and did not target two board members who do not have Jewish-sounding names.”
Gonzalez also noted that the group drew inverted red triangles on Pasternak’s windows, a symbol “associated with Hamas, a terrorist group.” The shape is sometimes traced back to the Hamas military videos, where it is used to indicate Israeli targets. It is also connected to the red triangle depicted in the Palestinian flag.
The individuals named in the 25-count indictment are 36-year-old Gabriel Schubiner and 32-year-old Samuel Seligson, both Brooklyn residents, and 28-year-old Queens resident Taylor Pelton.
Investigators identified the trio based on surveillance footage near the affected residences in the early morning of June 12, the DA’s office said in the press release. A fingerprint found on a stencil covered in red paint was also identified as belonging to Schubiner.
The group, which included the three named in the indictment and “three unapprehended others,” was also filmed on Douglas Street carrying black bags. The same car carrying the defendants was allegedly captured at the Pasternak residence.
Pelton and Seligson were arrested in connection with the incident in July and August, respectively. In a move that drew condemnation from some freedom advocacy organizations, Seligson, an independent videographer, was initially charged for traveling in a car with the rest of the group. In the most recent indictment, Seligson is also accused of directing others to place “supplies” into the trunk of Pelton’s Red Honda Fit, identified in security videos, and carrying black bags near the incident sites.
The New York Police Department declined to comment further on the investigation and the indictment. Hyperallergic has contacted the Brooklyn Museum for comment.
