CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn — A 28-year-old man has been arrested, and his family and community are trying to calm their nerves, after an attempted kidnapping that appears to have no explanation.

The video shows the man trying to snatch a six-year-old boy from his father in Brooklyn, New York.

The boy was pulled so hard that his feet came off the ground, but the boy’s father never lost his grip.

It happened in front of multiple cameras Saturday as the father and son were on their way to a Shabbos gathering in Crown Heights.

The boy’s mother says the strangest thing is that the suspect is their neighbor. They’ve seen him before and say he’s never said or done anything unusual.

“He always held the door, he was always nice,” the mother said.

She said neighbors told her there was something else going on with the 28-year-old suspect and that he was having a bad day.

She says members of the Jewish community are already nervous about the increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the city since October 7 of last year.

“I don’t think it was a hate crime, but it was scary. It was like a scary incident. When you live in New York, you don’t expect someone to attack a child of six years and takes him away from his parents,” she adds.

The mother says she is proud of her husband and son for the way they held on to each other and didn’t let go. She says her little boy will undergo therapy and her family hopes justice will be served in court.

The 28-year-old man, identified as Stephen Sowe, is charged with attempted kidnapping, harassment and endangering the welfare of a child.