Monsey Chanukah Stabber Indicted By Grand Jury

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A Rockland County Grand Jury indicted stabbing suspect Grafton Thomas on Friday.

The indictment included six counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault, three counts of attempted assault, and two counts of burglary for the Monsey machete attack at home of Rabbi Rottenberg.

Thomas, 37, was arraigned on Sunday December 29, and pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Bail was set at $5 million, and he remains jailed.

Thomas’ criminal history includes an arrest for assaulting a police horse. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions.

The attack was the latest in a string of violence targeting Jews in the region, including a Dec. 10 massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue.

Gov. Cuomo said the tabbing attack was the 13th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said it wants the FBI to create a special task force.

Monsey, near the New Jersey state line about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of New York City, is one of several Hudson Valley communities that has seen a rising population of Hasidic Jews in recent years.

At a celebration in Monsey on Sunday that was planned before the shooting, several members of the community stood guard armed with assault-style rifles. They refused to give their names when approached by an AP journalist, but they said they were there to defend their community.

“The Jewish community is utterly terrified,” Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. “No one should have to live like this.”

Thomas was no stranger to Orthodox Jews and even served as a Shabbos Goy for his Jewish friends while growing up, according to a statement by his mother, Kim Thomas.

Thomas said that her son was born in Crown Heights and allegedly used to perform tasks for his Jewish neighbours every Shabbat. She added that her son was always warmly welcomed when returning to Brooklyn from their home in Greenwood Lake.

“If he goes down there, anyone that sees him on the block, in the neighborhood, hugs him, welcomes him,” she said.

However Thomas’s account was disputed by veteran residents of Crown Heights, who said they had no recollection of her son living there.