A teacher walking toward a Jewish day school in Miami Beach was assaulted in what authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime, prompting an intensive police operation that ended with one person taken into custody Wednesday afternoon.

The attack occurred Tuesday morning just steps from the Lehrman Community Day School, along the 500 block of 77th Street. According to police sources, the teacher had parked her car down the block and was walking toward the school when a man suddenly approached her, spat directly in her face, and hurled an antisemitic slur, calling her a “dirty Jew.”

Sources say the assailant then slapped her on the left side of her head before grabbing the cellphone from her hand and smashing it repeatedly on the pavement until it shattered. The victim, shaken and injured, ran toward the school as a co-worker immediately contacted police.

What followed was a large-scale search effort. Officers flooded the neighborhood, assisted by park rangers, while undercover detectives and a police drone operator scoured the surrounding blocks for the perpetrator. Despite the extensive deployment, the suspect initially managed to evade capture.

Detectives interviewed the teacher at the school shortly after the attack. She told officers she had been wearing a necklace bearing a Star of David at the time, raising immediate concerns that she had been targeted because of her Jewish identity.

The incident has sent a jolt through Miami Beach’s Jewish community, which has faced rising concerns about security near schools and shuls amid an uptick in antisemitic threats and harassment nationwide.

Police confirmed Wednesday afternoon that they had taken one individual into custody in connection with the assault. Officials have not released the suspect’s name or further details, citing the ongoing investigation into what appears to be a bias-driven mugging.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)