Man Who Stabbed Someone Near a Brooklyn Synagogue is Being Charged With Attempted Murder and Hate Crimes

A man aged 22 was arrested and charged with 14 counts, including attempted murder, assault, and hate crimes after police say they think he stabbed a man aged 33 near a Brooklyn synagogue over the weekend.

Around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, police were called to Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights, which is right next to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s main office on Eastern Parkway.

Police told CNN that the 33-year-old man was “slashed in the torso” after a fight with the 26-year-old man, who said, “Free Palestine.”

Police said the person was taken to Kings County Hospital in safe condition.

Court records show that the suspect, Vincent Sumpter, 22, was arrested and charged with hate crimes, menacing, assault with intent to cause serious injury with a weapon and assault with intent to cause serious injury based on race or faith. CNN has reached out to Sumpter’s lawyer for comment.

He said he wasn’t guilty of all the charges against him. The bail amount was set at $100,000, and he will be back in court on Thursday.

According to court records, the suspect yelled “Free Palestine” and asked the victim, “Do you want to die?” before cutting him.

A rabbi and spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Yaacov Behrman, said that people in the community chased down the suspect and held him until police came and arrested him. CNN talked to the synagogue to get their thoughts.

Behrman said he went to the hospital on Sunday night to see the victim, a Jewish man with long-standing ties to the area.

Behrman wrote, “He is thankful to be alive and knows that things would have turned out very differently if he had been stabbed just 4 centimeters away.” “He’s getting better and should be free in 24 to 48 hours,” she said.

The rabbi said that the event shows how dangerous it is when some politicians and leaders in New York and across the US spread hateful and anti-Semitic lies.

“Let this event serve as a warning of what might happen if this kind of hateful speech continues.” “There is always violence when hate speech and threats against a group are spread,” Behrman wrote.

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