Suspect charged with hate crime in attack of 2 Jewish DePaul students on campus, officials say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 Chicago I-Team has learned that a suspect arrested in the attack against two Jewish DePaul students is now facing multiple charges, including two counts of a hate crime.

The suspect, Adam Erkan, has also been charged with counts of aggravated battery with great bodily harm, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said late Wednesday.

The charges came after Chicago police announced the arrest of a person of interest earlier Wednesday.

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Prosecutors said Erkan attacked and beat two Jewish students at DePaul late last year, leaving them with a concussion and broken wrist.

The victims, Max Long and Michael Kaminsky, told the I-Team they feel a little bit safer for the first time in months.

"I think there is a little sigh of relief knowing that one of the two violent perpetrators who went out of their way to attack two Jewish students is now off the streets for the time being," Kaminsky said.

Prosecutors with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said the alleged attacker who's now locked up is Adam Erkan. The 20-year-old man is charged with two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of hate crime against Long and Kaminsky.

November 6, the pair of friends and DePaul University students, one of them an Israeli soldier, were staged outside DePaul University's Student Center, advocating for conversation about the Israel-Hamas war when video showed the violent attack. Two masked men beat and knocked the students to the ground.

"I can't even go back to campus and feel safe, like I really felt exposed, isolated and attacked, physically and, you know, and psychologically," Long said.

More than five months later, police have now arrested Erkan, who is from the northwest suburbs.

"That just proves that there was five months of looking over our shoulder every single day and what Max and I continue to do, because we know that there's still another perpetrator out there," Kaminsky said.

Attorneys Jaclyn Clark and Gerard Filliti with the Lawfare Project are representing the pair in its lawsuit against DePaul University following the attack.

"These are two individuals who are targeted on their campus simply for being Jewish or advocating for the Jewish people, so they've they've been living in fear, and the fact that these two suspects have remained at large for over five months has certainly contributed greatly to that fear," Clark said.

"I think it's very important to see justice play out," Filliti said. "These arrests are crucial, not just to Max and Michael, but to the Jewish community, we've seen too many hate crime attacks go unpunished."

Now, Long and Kaminsky said their second assailant needs to be caught and charged, and the conversation on campus needs to change.

The I-Team reached out to DePaul regarding the arrest and charges, but they have not responded.