Michael Trager is glad that Dawood Faisal, the man whose actions resulted in the death of his wife of 47 years, has been indicted on hate crime charges for vandalizing a Jewish-owned bagel shop in his Queens neighborhood. But that isn’t the only hate crime he should be charged with, as far as Trager is concerned.
After two incidents of alleged destruction of Jewish-owned property, Cara Trager was killed by a car that Faisal hit after he sped down the street at 75 miles per hour in a 35-mile-an-hour zone, ran a red light and crashed into a car, which then struck the Tragers as they crossed the street.
Faisal, who is 22 and Muslim, and was 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. He did so twice, according to the criminal complaints against him.
The first time was on the night of May 15, and the second on May 23, the Queens district attorney’s office said.
Two days later, he is accused of speeding down a usually quiet street at 75 miles per hour, running a red light and starting the domino effect of cars that careened into Michael and Cara Trager, who were crossing the street.
Faisal was indicted on Oct. 19 on hate crimes charges for allegedly destroying the bagel store property because it displayed Israeli flags.
On July 31, Faisal was arraigned on the same charges, according to the criminal complaint. Indictment is the next step in escalating the case up the legal ladder, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney told JNS.
“This defendant repeatedly targeted a Jewish-owned business and destroyed property in a vile act of antisemitism,” Queens district attorney Melinda Katz stated at the time. “Incidents such as this extend beyond one target and spread fear to an entire community.”
According to Trager, Faisal should also be charged with hate crimes in connection with his wife’s death.
Cara Trager was killed on the evening of Memorial Day this year, May 25, as she and her husband walked home from a date night dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, a kosher dairy restaurant called Cafe Muscat. They planned to watch an old movie once they got home, Michael Trager told JNS.
As they crossed the street within the designated lines and with the walk signal, a car came barreling into them. It knocked Cara unconscious and injured Michael, separating his 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 told JNS, using a Yiddish expression meaning a “big deal.”
Emergency medical technicians from Hatzalah, the Jewish volunteer emergency corps, restarted Cara’s heart when they arrived at the scene on May 25. But she never regained consciousness, her husband told JNS. She died on May 29.
The criminal complaint brought against Faisal by the Queens district attorney for that event indicates that he has been charged with an armed felony offense, with his car being the weapon, and with leaving the scene of an incident involving serious physical injury.
When his car died, Faisal allegedly got out the passenger door and ran away until he was stopped by three police officers.
Faisal has also been charged with speeding, with reckless driving and with driving through a red light.
'Never anticipated this level of antisemitism in New York'
Asked why hate crime charges have not been brought against Faisal in the case that resulted 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 told JNS that he remains so distraught that he cannot concentrate at work.
Cara Trager was 71. She was a devoted volunteer at their Conservative synagogue, Congregation Etz Hayim, was a freelance writer and leaves behind 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 does the Tragers’ daughter, Rachel, 40, who lives in Tel Aviv with her husband and children.
In her obituary in Newsday, a newspaper for which she often wrote, Cara was remembered 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 feels ignored and disrespected by New York City’s leaders, he told JNS.
He appealed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch for meetings, he said.
“They rebuffed me,” Trager told JNS.
He met with Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the mayor’s office to combat antisemitism. He also met with Fred Kreizman, an NYPD commissioner of community affairs who is also an observant Jew.
Trager was told Tisch couldn’t see him because, at the time, she was visiting Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, which had just experienced an intruder at Friday night services. Nobody 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 told JNS. “Why can’t she reach out to me?”
The next step in the cases against Faisal is a court appearance on Nov. 12, Trager said. The date was confirmed by 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 told JNS. “He can watch whatever sporting event he wants at my house, with victims of antisemitism.”