(Bloomberg) -- Senior Moelis & Co. banker Jonathan Kaye has resigned from the firm after a widely shared video showed him striking a woman in Brooklyn.

Kaye, who ran the investment bank’s global business services franchise, has left the company, according to a Moelis spokesperson. His profile has also been removed from the company’s website.

The banker was placed on leave shortly after the incident, which took place June 8 during Brooklyn’s LGBT+ pride event in the Park Slope neighborhood and was captured in the video. 

In a statement by email, a representative for Kaye said he had feared for his physical safety as he was surrounded by people who physically assaulted him and threw unknown liquids on him before he struck the woman. They said the banker would cooperate with authorities to clear his name.

“He could not identify any of these individuals and was left bloodied from the attack,” the statement read. “Given the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, any Jewish person in this situation would naturally feel threatened and feel the need to defend themselves and return safely to their family.”

Kaye’s “mistake was the presumption of non-violent discourse,” according to the statement. “The aftermath to Mr. Kaye, which has included countless death threats and a campaign of personal destruction, has been traumatic and devastating.”

A police report filed four days after the incident by a woman, 38, stated that the punch caused a broken nose, lacerations and a black eye, and that she lost consciousness when she fell to the ground, the New York Police Department said in a statement last week.

Media reports at the time, citing anonymous sources, said that the punch followed a verbal disagreement about Israel’s actions in Gaza, and that people threw liquids over Kaye, who had told them they were on the wrong side of the debate.

Kaye joined Moelis in 2013 from Citigroup Inc., where he was a managing director focused on the industrial, consumer and technology sectors. He was also a founder of Citigroup’s shareholder activism practice.

Rick Polhemus has been appointed to run Moelis’s US business services franchise and will work with colleagues in Europe on international matters, according to a person familiar with the matter.

--With assistance from Sonali Basak.

(Updates with statement from Kaye representative.)

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