(New York) The man who drove his car into an Orthodox Jewish building in New York on Wednesday, without causing any injuries, is being prosecuted for several offenses with the aggravating circumstance that they were motivated by hatred, the police announced.
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The charges against Dan Sohail, a 36-year-old New Jersey resident, are attempted assault, endangering others, damage to property and aggravated harassment, all of a hateful nature, said an official, Joseph Kenny, during a press briefing Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, he repeatedly rammed the doors of a historic Brooklyn building housing the world headquarters of the Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidic Judaism. He then surrendered without resistance to the police officers who arrived on the scene.
PHOTO YUKI IWAMURA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A New York police truck is parked not far from the site of the attack.
This incident reinforced the concern of the Jewish community of New York, the largest in the United States, about the increase in anti-Semitic acts in the country and the city.
The day before, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a rabbi was the victim of an attack in Queens. A week earlier, two teenagers were prosecuted for painting swastikas in a Brooklyn park.
“Any threat targeting a Jewish institution or place of worship must be taken seriously. Anti-Semitism has no place in our city, and any violence or intimidation against New York Jews is unacceptable,” responded Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who visited the site in the evening.
Community leaders told several media outlets that the suspect, with a Muslim father and Catholic mother, had visited several synagogues in recent months, asking for spiritual guidance and how to convert.
Videos posted on social media show him dancing with members of the Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn.
Shortly before the incident on Wednesday, he had visited two other Jewish community sites in New Jersey. His agitated behavior had worried some officials who called the police.
