Second suspect busted in attack on Jewish Columbia University student pelted with rocks: cops

A second suspect was busted Thursday morning in the hateful attack on a Jewish Columbia University student – who was pelted with rocks and had his Israeli flag burned – as campus unrest raged in April, authorities said.

Zuhdi Ahmed, 20, of Ossining, was arrested just after 6 a.m. and slapped with multiple charges – assault and menacing as hate crimes, as well as aggravated harassment, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment – in connection to the April 20 crime targeting student Jonathan Lederer, 22, police said. 

Ahmed was allegedly part of a trio who confronted Lederer just before 10 p.m. at Amsterdam Avenue and West 116th Street, with one of them ripping away his Israeli flag, cops said. 

The victim followed the flag snatcher – who escaped into a crowd of people with the victim on his tail – when another person hurled a rock at him, hitting him in the face, police said. 

A third person then grabbed the flag and set it on fire, cops said. 

“Finally, I succeeded in grabbing my flags and ran to rejoin my friends,” Lederer wrote in an article he penned for The Free Press. “We ended up being chased out of campus and told to ‘go back to Poland,’ a poignant reminder that even in America, antisemites wish to condemn Jews like me to our ancestors’ tragic fate.”