Racism is alive and well… and dangerous. This time, it’s an incident in Brooklyn, where two neighborhood assailants brutally attacked an interracial couple, including hurling a lynching threat at the male victim. Per the New York Daily News, the attack happened last weekend outside of Coney Island Hospital while the two were out trying to celebrate their sixth anniversary.  

“I feel like I’m back 50 years ago or something,” said Anna, 38, of the attack toward herself and her boyfriend John, 42. “Being attacked for (our races) — it’s the first time. I’ve never felt any hate from people that live here.” Anna is a white while John is black.

Police have identified the alleged attackers as Bernard Szurant, 25, and Rudolph Evmenenko, 27, who reportedly screamed things such as “This is our neighborhood you f—–g n—–! Get out of here!” and “Go back to your neighborhood, we’re going to lynch you, you f—— charcoal burner!”

“They were basically torturing (John),” said Anna, who reported that the two assailants were drunk. “They couldn’t hit him because he’s tall and they were smaller, (but) they literally attached to his body and wouldn’t let go. Like leeches.”

“I was trying to sort of be a barrier between her and them,” John added, who was repeatedly hit in the face for a seemingly forever 10 minutes and left the incident with a gash on his arm according to court documents. “I was more concerned about her because she just threw herself right in the middle of it.”

"A couple times they feigned that they had a weapon, acted like they had a gun, and that was a bit unnerving,” he continued. “I said to him, 'You're not a man if you can't use your hands.’”

“(John) didn't want to cause serious injuries,” noted Anna who also assisted in pushing and kicking the two men. “He was a professional boxer years ago. He knows how to protect himself from hits. If they couldn't get a good shot on him, he wasn't gonna take the first shot." Anna attempted to call 911, but Evmenenko knocked away her cell phone.

"This was going on all the way until the cops literally pulled up in the car and they grabbed them off of him,” Anna said of the cops who immediately seized and took both men into custody. The drama didn’t stop there because Szurant even threatened the black NYPD detective exclaiming, “I know where you work. I am going to come to the 61st Precinct and f—— kill you, you f—— n—–.” Both men were charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief and harassment, with Szurant getting an extra charge of harassment for threatening the detective. The two will be released from jail and told to stay away from the interracial couple following a brief Sunday arraignment, per judge orders.

Records show that Szurant has quite the bulky criminal history, with 23 arrests, including robbery.  “So it's only a matter of time before he does something to really hurt somebody. I feel like I got to pray about this,” he said. “It sounds like he is on the path for a criminal career sort of thing. That's insanity." Evmenenko has one single prior arrest for marijuana possession.

Anna and John are rightfully shaken up by the experience, but their bond will remain stronger despite and because of it. "We are closer now more than ever,” she said. “I feel that we've been more protective of each other. More sympathetic and understanding."

"I've always felt that living in this part of Brooklyn there is this sort of deep-seated racism,” said John. “For them to make that attack based on pure racism is a sad sort of commentary on where we are at in this society at this given time.”

Yes, unfortunately… this still happens in 2017.