Knifeman wounds five in attack at rabbi’s Hanukkah gathering
● New York governor Cuomo refers to crime as ‘domestic terrorism’
A knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, an ambush the governor said was an act of domestic terrorism fuelled by intolerance and a “cancer” of growing hatred in America.
Police arrested a suspect in Manhattan within hours of Saturday night’s attack. Grafton E. Thomas, 37, had blood all over his clothing and smelled of bleach, according to prosecutors. He was arraigned yesterday morning and pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $5 million.
Local police chief Brad Weidel said Thomas is being charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.
The 37-year-old suspect’s criminal history includes an arrest for assaulting a police horse, according to an official briefed on the investigation. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions.
The FBI is seeking a warrant to obtain his online accounts and were scouring digital evidence. They are also looking into whether he has a history of mental illness.
The stabbings on the seventh night of Hanukkah left one person critically wounded, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. The rabbi’s son was also injured, he said. Authorities have not provided a motive.
The attack was the latest in a series of violence targeting Jews in the region, including a 10 December massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue.
Mr Cuomo said Saturday’s violence was the 13th antisemitic attack in New York since 8 December and endemic of “an American cancer on the body politic”.
“This is violence spurred by hate, it is mass violence and I consider this an act of domestic terrorism,” Mr Cuomo said. “Let’s call it what it is.”
Mr Weidel said it was unclear why the rabbi’s house was targeted or if a specific ideology motivated the suspect. According to the official briefed on the investigation, authorities do not believe Thomas is connected to recent anti-semitic incidents in New York City.
The stabbings happened around 10pm on Saturday at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rotberg tenberg, located next door to his Congregation Netzach Yisroel synagogue.
“The guy came in wielding a big knife, sword, machete – I don’t know what it was,” said Josef Gluck, who hit the assailant with a coffee table during the attack. “He took it out of his holder, started swinging,”
Rabbi Motti Seligson, the media director of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, said witnesses told him that people fled the house and went to the synagogue where they locked themselves in. Rabbi Rotten
led the service at the synagogue later, he said.
Mr Weidel said a witness saw the suspect fleeing in a car and alerted police to the licence plate number. Police entered that information into a database and used plate reader technology to track the vehicle to Manhattan, where Thomas was arrested.
“It was critical to the case,” Mr Weidel said.
Monsey, near the New Jersey state line about 35 miles north of New York City, is one of several Hudson Valley communities that has seen an influx of Hasidic Jews in recent years.
The attack and the recent wave of anti-semitic violence in the region drew condemnation from various officials.
“Israel unequivocally condemns the recent expressions of anti-semitism and the vicious attack in the middle of Hanukkah on the rabbi’s house in Monsey, New York,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Twitter that she was “deeply disturbed” by the stabbing in Monsey and other recent anti-semitic attacks.