Hanukkah stabbing suspect has ‘history of mental illness’ and no ties to hate groups, family says - Washington Post

The stabbing, which officials said began after 10 p.m. Saturday, lasted less than two minutes and left five people wounded.

Within two hours of the attack in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, police tracked down and arrested Grafton Thomas, a 37-year-old resident of Greenwood Lake, based on the license plate number of a silver Nissan that witnesses had seen fleeing the scene.

Thomas was arraigned on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary during a court appearance Sunday. He pleaded not guilty, according to the Associated Press, and his bail was set at $5 million. Sussman said he plans to seek “immediate mental health evaluation” for his client.

“We believe the actions of which he is accused, if committed by him, tragically reflect profound mental illness,” Sussman said, for which “Grafton has received episodic treatment before being released.”

Although Sussman said Thomas has no criminal convictions or “history of like violent acts,” a security official briefed on the case, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he had been arrested at least seven times since 2001, including an arrest for assaulting a police horse.

Saturday’s attack in the New York City suburb of Monsey — the 13th anti-Semitic incident in three weeks in the state — was the most recent in a string of violence targeting local Jewish communities. Earlier this month, four people were fatally shot in what officials called an attack on a Jersey City kosher grocery store motivated by hatred of Jews and law enforcement.

As news of the latest assault spread, advocacy groups and local leaders called for concrete steps to address anti-Jewish attacks.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), who labeled the ambush an act of domestic terrorism and directed the state’s Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate, called for harsher punishments for mass attacks motivated by hatred of an identity group.

President Trump and leaders in Congress were also united in condemning anti-Semitism after the attack, though some Democrats said Trump should take a more forceful public stance and blamed him for stoking bigotry.

On Sunday afternoon, Trump tweeted, “The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night is horrific. We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism."

Rabbi Rottenberg told about last night's attack in Monsey: there was no warning, nothing said—just hate.
"A country is not just what it does—it is also what it tolerates." I do not tolerate this
We must call this what it is: Domestic terrorism & our laws must treat it that way pic.twitter.com/HMJFtnkXWh
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 29, 2019

Saturday’s stabbing shook a county where a third of the population is Jewish and where officials said anti-Semitism has risen in recent years as increasing numbers of Orthodox Jews have made homes there. Last month, police said that they would increase patrols in Monsey in response to Jewish residents’ fears. National concerns have prompted similar vows of heightened security across the country.

“People in the Orthodox community are connecting dots and are genuinely frightened of the escalation,” said Rockland County legislator Aron Wieder.

Wieder said anti-Semitism began to rise in the area about a decade ago and has increased noticeably in the past five years. As more Orthodox Jews have moved into the community, other residents taunted them anonymously online, then etched swastikas onto the dirty window of a van and a “for sale” sign in front of a home. An ad for the county’s Republican Party accused Wieder of “plotting a takeover” that threatens “our way of life.”

Then, last month, a 30-year-old rabbi said two people approached him from behind on a secluded street in Monsey and beat him for several minutes. Police Chief Brad Weidel has said there is no evidence that the man was targeted for his religion, but concerns flared up in the Orthodox community.

A security official briefed on the case said the attacker entered the rabbi’s house and closed the door behind him before saying, “Nobody going anywhere.”

He unsheathed what witnesses described as a sword nearly the size of a broomstick and started slashing at random, moving through the entryway, then into the dining room and eventually toward the kitchen, where dozens of people — from children to senior citizens — were trying to flee through a back door.

Attendee Joseph Gluck eventually hit the attacker in the head with a small coffee table from the entryway. Both men moved outside, and Gluck realized that the man was headed toward the synagogue, where congregants locked the doors after hearing the commotion at the rabbi’s house. Gluck screamed warnings, then watched as the man tried a second door.

The attacker fled to a car and sped away. Authorities and witnesses said Gluck was able to catch the license plate number, the critical information that allowed authorities to catch the suspect in Harlem around midnight — covered in blood and smelling of bleach, prosecutors said, according to the Associated Press.

Yisroel Kraus, a 26-year-old teacher who was celebrating Hanukkah at the rabbi’s home with his family, said it was lucky that people had already started to filter out for the night.

“If he had come 10 minutes earlier, the place would have been packed,” said Kraus. “No way to move. No way to run. It was a miracle. It was a Hanukkah miracle.”

Two of the five victims remain hospitalized, and at least one was in critical condition with a head wound, Cuomo said at a Sunday news conference.

Thomas is next scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Sussman said the family expresses “our deepest concern and prayers for those injured physically and otherwise deeply affected by the events of Saturday night and our family’s earnest yearnings for their well being.”

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