George Zamot, 49, was honored Wednesday for chasing down the Manhattan screwdriver attacker who wounded two men in July.
The longtime UPS driver received recognition at the UJA-Federation of New York’s Rally to Stop Anti-Semitism in Midtown Manhattan, where he spoke publicly for the first time about confronting alleged assailant Raul Morales, 51.
Zamot was making a routine delivery run on July 23 when he encountered Moshe Grunhaus, 50, clutching his chest outside a synagogue at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street. Grunhaus, who was wearing a kippah, had just been stabbed with a screwdriver and pleaded with bystanders to call 911, identifying his attacker as “the gentleman in the black hoodie.”
Minutes earlier, Morales had already struck once, stabbing a 57-year-old Asian man in the back with a knife near West 84th Street and Central Park West, according to police.
“I looked and Moshe Grunhaus was grabbing on his chest,” Zamot told The Post in an exclusive interview.
“And he had asked someone to call 911 because ‘the gentleman in the black hoodie had just stabbed me.'”
Grunhaus turned to Zamot with a shaken look, silently urging him to act. The South Bronx native said he “instinctively” began trailing Morales from a distance across two to three blocks.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do at this point,” Zamot admitted. “I just knew he couldn’t do that again. I was ready to do whatever I had to do.”
The pursuit ended inside a NYCHA building where Morales lived. Zamot followed him into an elevator, and the two rode together in tense silence until another passenger exited on the third floor. Morales got off on the eleventh floor, then turned back with an unsettling farewell.
“After one individual got off on the third floor, he [Morales] got off on the eleventh. And as he leaves, he looks at me and he says, ‘Have a great day,'” Zamot recalled.
Zamot said he could only “look at him in total amazement” at the casual demeanor. He memorized the apartment number and relayed it to the NYPD, who extracted Morales after a standoff lasting nearly an hour.
Since the arrest, prosecutors have disclosed that investigators found evidence of antisemitic views held by Morales.
Zamot, a father of three, had kept his involvement quiet until the rally. “My mother only found out today,” he said Wednesday.
When asked what drove him to pursue a potentially armed man, Zamot framed the stakes in familial terms. “One way or the other, he wasn’t gonna be able to do this to anybody else’s child. Because that’s how I see it.”
He later learned that Grunhaus’s mother lives in Israel. “There’s no way I was gonna let another mom just lose their child and live in agony for the rest of their lives,” Zamot said.
At the rally, he pressed the crowd to take personal responsibility for combating hate. “Be the thing that hate crimes cannot operate around,” Zamot urged.
Grunhaus, still recovering, delivered a prerecorded message to his rescuer. “My hero in brown uniform,” he called him.
“New York City is a safer place because of you. New York City is a better place because of you,” Grunhaus said. “The world is a better place because of you.”
Zamot became visibly emotional as the message played.
The July 23 attacks occurred in quick succession on the Upper West Side. Morales allegedly targeted the 57-year-old Asian man first, then crossed to Amsterdam Avenue where he encountered Grunhaus leaving synagogue. The assaults prompted a police manhunt that concluded with Zamot’s tip leading to the NYCHA apartment standoff and arrest.