Hate charges but not murder in a Queens death

Michael Trager is glad that Dawood Faisal, the man accused of causing the death of his wife of 47 years, has been indicted on hate-crime charges for vandalizing a Jewish-owned bagel shop in Queens. But as far as Trager is concerned, that isn’t the only hate crime Faisal should be charged with.

Faisal, 22, a Muslim reportedly born in the United States to Pakistani parents, allegedly knocked over plant stands, pulled plants out of their pots and threw dirt at the wall of the then-closed kosher bagel shop on the night of May 15, and again on May 23, according to the criminal complaints against him.

Two days later, on May 25, he allegedly sped down a usually quiet street at 75 miles per hour in a 35-mph zone, ran a red light and crashed into another car, which then careened into Michael and Cara Trager as they crossed the street.

Faisal was arraigned on the bagel-shop charges on July 31 and indicted on Oct. 19 — the next step up the legal ladder, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney told JNS. The charges allege he targeted the store because it displayed Israeli flags.

“This defendant repeatedly targeted a Jewish-owned business and destroyed property in a vile act of antisemitism,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Incidents such as this extend beyond one target and spread fear to an entire community.”

Cara Trager was struck on the evening of Memorial Day, May 25, as she and her husband walked home from date night at one of their favorite restaurants, the kosher dairy Cafe Muscat. They planned to watch an old movie once they got home, Michael Trager told JNS.

They were in the crosswalk, with the walk signal, when the car barreled into them. It knocked Cara unconscious and separated Michael’s shoulder, he said. Months later, it still hurts.

“But compared to the loss of my wife, I don’t want to make a tzimmes,” he said, using the Yiddish expression for making a big fuss.

Emergency medical technicians from Hatzalah, the Jewish volunteer emergency corps, restarted Cara’s heart at the scene, but she never regained consciousness, her husband said. She died on May 29.

In the crash case, the Queens district attorney’s criminal complaint charges Faisal with an armed felony offense — his car being the weapon — and with leaving the scene of an incident involving serious physical injury. He also faces charges of speeding, reckless driving and running a red light.

When his car came to a stop, Faisal allegedly got out the passenger door and ran until three police officers stopped him.

‘Never anticipated this level of antisemitism in New York’

Asked why hate-crime charges have not been brought against Faisal in Cara Trager’s death, the spokesman for the Queens district attorney declined to comment.

“It is so sad that a maniac can take a life and get maybe five years if he’s convicted, and she dies from it,” said Trager, a certified public accountant who says he is still too distraught to concentrate at work.

Cara Trager, 71, was a freelance writer and a devoted volunteer at the couple’s Conservative synagogue, Congregation Etz Hayim. She leaves two adult children and four grandchildren.

Her son, Eric, 43, works for the Senate in Washington, D.C. He and his wife have two children, as do the Tragers’ daughter, Rachel, 40, and her husband, who live in Tel Aviv.

In its obituary, Newsday, where her work often appeared, remembered Cara as someone who “spent decades chronicling the lives of Long Islanders as a freelance journalist.” She was “driven by an endless curiosity, keen instincts and a gift for putting people at ease,” it said.

Michael Trager said he feels ignored and disrespected by New York City’s leaders.

He asked to meet with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“They rebuffed me,” he said.

He did meet with Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, and with Fred Kreizman, NYPD assistant commissioner of community affairs who is an observant Jew.

Trager said he was told Tisch couldn’t see him because she was visiting Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, where an intruder had just entered during Friday night services. No one was hurt.

“It’s so weird to me that she couldn’t reach out to someone whose wife actually died. She should have done that,” Trager said. “Why can’t she reach out to me?”

Faisal is due back in court in both cases on Nov. 12, according to Trager and the Queens district attorney’s office.

“It seems that the pendulum is swinging in the direction of justice,” said Trager, though Faisal “could get bail on Nov. 12. From my and my children’s standpoint, we want the police and DA to look at his past acts” as part of the prosecution for Cara Trager’s death.

“I never anticipated this level of antisemitism in New York,” said Trager, who grew up in Queens and whose late wife was raised in the Bronx. “Never.”

“I learned that Mamdani watched the World Cup with inmates on Rikers Island, possibly with my wife’s killer,” Trager said. “He can watch whatever sporting event he wants at my house, with victims of antisemitism.” —JNS