Suspect in knife rampage at rabbi's home appears to have acted alone: New York police

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Suspect in knife rampage at rabbi's home appears to have acted alone: New York police

By Maria Caspani

 

A New York Police Department (NYPD) officer stands guard ahead of gathering at Grand Army Plaza in solidarity with the victims after an assailant stabbed five people attending a party at an Hasidic rabbi's home in Monsey, N.Y., on December 28, 2019, while they were celebrating Hanukkah, Brooklyn, New York City, U.S., December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An assailant who stabbed five people attending a party at an Hasidic rabbi's home in what New York's governor called an act of domestic terrorism appears to have been acting alone, police said on Sunday.

 

Grafton Thomas, 37, is accused of attempted murder after bursting in to the Hanukkah celebration on Saturday night in Rockland County, about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City. Police said he fled and was later arrested in Manhattan by two officers who were on the lookout for his car.

 

"We have nothing to indicate at this time that there were other people (involved), but that will be part of a very lengthy, very methodical and thorough investigation," New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea told reporters.

 

Speaking at a news conference alongside Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city leaders, Shea said that the suspect said "almost nothing" to the young officers who took him into custody at gunpoint after stopping him in Harlem. Shea declined to say whether Thomas had previously been on the department's radar.

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the attack in the small town of Monsey, which followed days of anti-Semitic incidents in the New York City area, was an act of domestic terrorism.

 

"These are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence, generate fear based on race, color, creed," Cuomo told reporters after meeting with some of the victims.

 

President Donald Trump called it an horrific attack.

 

"We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism," Trump wrote on Twitter.

 

Thomas, from Greenwood Lake, New York, is due to return to court in the town of Ramapo on Jan. 3 after he was arraigned on Sunday on five counts of attempted murder and ordered held on $5 million bail.

 

ORTHODOX ENCLAVE

According to Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, the attacker had his face partially covered with a scarf when he stabbed five people, two of whom were in critical condition.

 

"One of the rabbi's children was also stabbed," Gestetner told reporters.

 

One witness who was at the rabbi's home said he began praying for his life when he saw the assailant remove a large knife from a case.

 

"It was about the size of a broomstick," Aron Kohn told the New York Times.

 

Roughly a third of the population of Rockland County is Jewish, including a large enclave of Orthodox Jews who live in secluded communities.

 

Another attack took place in Monsey in November when a man walking to a synagogue was stabbed multiple times, according to media reports.

 

The attack on the party, which was attended by dozens of people, followed a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in New York City and surrounding areas.

New York City's police department said on Friday it was stepping up patrols in heavily Jewish neighborhoods.

 

Shea told Sunday's news conference there had been a 21% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city this year.

 

'VICIOUS ATTACK'

Saturday's violence in Rockland County was at least the 10th anti-Semitic incident in the New York and New Jersey area in the last week, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization.

 

They included a 65-year-old man who was reportedly punched and kicked by an assailant yelling an anti-Semitic slur in Manhattan on Monday, and attacks on two other men in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

 

Those incidents came after six people were killed during a shooting rampage at a kosher grocery store in northern New Jersey earlier this month.

 

Earlier this year, a gunman killed a female rabbi and wounded three people during Sabbath services at Congregation Chabad in Poway, near San Diego, on the last day of Passover in April 2019.

 

Six months before that, a gunman killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned "recent displays of antisemitism including the vicious attack at the home of a rabbi in Monsey," at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting.

 

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah commemorates the 2nd century B.C. victory of Judah Maccabee and his followers in a revolt against armies of the Seleucid Empire.

 

The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council posted video on social media that showed the rabbi in Monsey and his followers continuing their celebrations at the synagogue next door, after the attack in his home.

 

It gave a rough translation of the lyrics they sang: "The grace of God did not end and his mercy did not leave us."

 

(Reporting by Maria Caspani; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in West Palm Beach and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-30

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Prosecutors charge Hanukkah stabbing suspect with hate crime, citing journals

By Maria Caspani

 

FILE PHOTO: A view of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's residence in Monsey, New York, U.S., December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on Monday filed hate crime charges against a man accused of going on a stabbing rampage during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home north of New York City, saying the suspect kept journals containing references to Adolf Hitler and "Nazi Culture."

 

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed the charges. A day earlier the suspect, Grafton Thomas, was arraigned on five counts of attempted murder in a state court in the town of Ramapo.

 

Thomas is accused of stabbing five people on Saturday night with what the criminal complaint described as a "machete" after bursting into a Hanukkah celebration that included dozens of people at Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's home in Monsey, about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City. The town is in Rockland County, home to a large Orthodox Jewish community.

 

The suspect was expected to appear at a federal court in White Plains on Monday afternoon to face five counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon resulting in bodily harm.

 

Handwritten journals confiscated from the suspect's Greenwood Lake, New York, home contained anti-Semitic sentiments including "referring to 'Adolf Hitler' and 'Nazi culture'" as well as a drawing of a swastika, FBI agent Julie Brown said in the complaint. She said his cell phone was used to search "Why did Hitler hate the Jews" on Nov. 9, Dec. 3, Dec. 7 and Dec. 16.

 

Brown also said the phone showed searches for Jewish temples in Elizabeth, New Jersey and Staten Island, both on Dec. 18, and for prominent American companies founded by Jews on Dec. 27.

 

The following day, Dec. 28, the phone was used to access an article headlined "New York City increased police presence in Jewish neighbourhoods after Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here's what's to know."

 

The complaint identifies the victims of Saturday's attack only by initials. Four of the five people stabbed were released after being treated at a local hospital. One was still hospitalized with a skull fracture, the New York Times quoted officials as saying.

 

'SCOURGE OF HATE'

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo denounced "a scourge of hate in this country".

 

"Its ignorance is intolerance. But it's also illegal. And it's spreading," Cuomo told CNN a day after he called the stabbing an act of domestic terrorism.

 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pointed to a "national crisis of anti-Semitism" in an interview with MSNBC.

 

Thomas' family said through his attorney he had a long history of mental illness, no known history of anti-Semitism and no prior convictions.

 

On Friday, New York City's police department said it was stepping up patrols in heavily Jewish neighbourhoods. Commissioner Dermot Shea told a Sunday news conference the city had seen a 21% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes this year.

 

These included an incident last Monday in which a 65-year-old man was reportedly punched and kicked by an assailant yelling an anti-Semitic slur, followed a day later by attacks on two other men in Brooklyn.

 

"New York is facing a growing problem of #antiSemitic incidents. The pattern is undeniable," Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League wrote on Twitter. "The #antiSemitic stabbing in Monsey is the latest horrific attack to shake our community.

 

There is an absolute need for greater action to protect the Jewish community."

 

Attacks on synagogues have shaken the Jewish community elsewhere in the country.

 

On the last day of Passover in April, a gunman killed a rabbi and wounded three people during Sabbath services at Congregation Chabad in Poway, near San Diego.

 

Six months before that, a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

 

(Reporting by Maria Caspani, additional reporting by Barbara Goldbergin New York; editing by Bill Tarrant and David Gregorio)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-31

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[DoctorG]

If you just read this story, and did not actually know the details, you would assume that the attacker was white. You would be wrong. Most of the NY attacks against jews have been by blacks.

[DoctorG]

It is a shame that these jewish worshipers were not "packing heat" like the Texas parishioners who "took care" of their assailant. 

[Nyezhov]

10 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

It is a shame that these jewish worshipers were not "packing heat" like the Texas parishioners who "took care" of their assailant. 

The Orthodox guys in Alaska do.

 

Im reminded of my neighbor when I was growing up, Mr. Ray, who went through WW2 across France with Patton, and who had (fascinating to a kid) his M1 Carbine and his 1911 from said career, and who was an Orthodox Jew and a fabulous tailor. Don't think his home would have been sucessfully invaded.

 

I think that there is a religious component to their being unarmed (besides being in NY where only bad folks can can get a gun without hassle) though. Hadisic Jews are somewhat medieval as to their view of the world, like Amish.

[Tug]

Thank god the pos dident have a gun that could have been worse much worse