NYPD Officers Injured During Huge Rabbi Funeral in Boro Park

A hearse ran over the leg of an NYPD officer working crowd control at a huge funeral for a well-known rabbi in Brooklyn Tuesday, while another officer was hit in the head with a drone that had apparently run out of gas, police say.

The cop apparently fell while working crowd control at the Borough Park funeral, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, and then got run over by a car in the funeral procession. He had a possible broken ankle, NYPD police commissioner James P. O’Neill said in an afternoon press conference.

Another cop also suffered minor injuries from an errant drone.”There was a drone that came out of the sky and hit a police officer,” O’Neill said. “The drone apparently ran out of gas… and it landed on the officer’s head.”

O’Neill said the drone was being looked at by police and at this stage no charges were being laid.

The funeral was for Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, who died at the age of 95. He was born in 1924 in Romania to Rabbie Eliezer Zusia Portugal who founded the Skulen Hasidic dynasty.

Father and son settled in Bucharest following World War II and in 1959 they were imprisoned for teaching Torah and helping Jewish children, according to Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein.

They left Romania for the United States in 1960 after intervention by the U.S. State Department and Sen. Robert “Scoop” Jackson, Eichestein said.

“As a community we mourn the petira of the Skulener Rebbe zatzal, one of the last surviving remnants of the pre-Holocaust generation – a leader that was deeply respected by all,” Eichenstein said in a press release. “Rabbi Portugal was a truly inspiring and special individual that we should all aspire to be like.”

Law enforcement sources also say there was another injury when a drone that was flying overhead apparently hit another police officer in the head.

Thousands were expected to show up for Rabbi Portugal’s funeral. Images from the scene captured an immense crowd lining the streets.

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