Two Ramapo teenagers and a Brooklyn man who claimed to be going after Jews were charged with a hate crime after assaulting a man walking near Grove Street in Monsey, Ramapo police said today.

Stanley R. Joseph, 18, of Suffern and Jennifer C. St. Amand, 20, of Airmont were charged with the enhanced hate crime designation after they told officers “that they were specifically targeting Jewish community members,” Sgt. Sal Matos said in a news release.

Qwesi Williams, 19, of Brooklyn also was arrested after the other two.

Adding the designation of hate crime raises the seriousness of the criminal charge.

A man told police he was attacked at 11:49 p.m Monday while walking near 16 Grove St. He was struck from behind with an unknown object, with officers speculating the object might have been a “stick or other long thin object,” Matos said.

After a description was broadcast of the attackers, one officer saw a man running from the scene and police vehicles. The officers ran after the man and apprehended him in the area of Route 306 and Maple Avenue.

Area residents gave police a license plate number for the car, leading officers to a home in Airmont where they took St. Amand in for questioning.

Police charged Joseph with second-degree robbery and second-degree assault, both as a hate crime, felonies. Police charged St. Amand with second-degree robbery as a hate crime and making a false written statement, a misdemeanor. Williams was charged with felony counts of second-degree assault as a hate crime and attempted first-degree robbery as a hate crime.

All three were being held in the Ramapo police lockup for arraignment in Ramapo Justice Court.

(Source: LoHud.com)