Suspect indicted on 6 attempted murder charges in Hanukkah machete slashing at rabbi's house
MONSEY, N.Y. — A Rockland grand jury Friday indicted Grafton Thomas on multiple charges of attempted murder in the machete slashing of five Hasidic Jewish men celebrating Hanukkah during a party at their rabbi’s house.
Thomas, 37, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a Ramapo Justice Court appearance on Dec. 22 prior to the grand jury presentation. His case now moves to County Court for prosecution.
In addition to six counts of attempted murder, Thomas was also charged with three counts first-degree assault, three counts of first-degree attempted assault and two counts of burglary in the first degree.
“The defendant has been charged with a violent and heinous crime. This was an extremely brutal attack,” District Attorney Thomas Walsh said.
Monsey attack: Family of man stabbed at Hanukkah party says he may never wake up
Thomas also is a suspect in the predawn attack and stabbing of a rabbi walking to synagogue on Howard Drive on Nov. 20, Police Chief Brad Weidel said Thursday. Weidel said so far there was no evidence that Thomas was involved in the November stabbing, but the police and FBI were investigating.
On Saturday night, Dec. 28, Thomas is accused of bursting into the Forshay Road house and swinging a machete at part-goers and stabbing them after declaring, “No one is leaving.”
Five men were seriously injured, including 72-year-old Josef Neumann, who suffered a fracture skull from a machete blow during the attack inside the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg of Congregation Netzach Yisroel.
Neumann been in a coma since the Saturday night attack and underwent surgery Thursday at the Westchester Medical Center in critical condition.
The other men’s injuries ranged from a suffered a severed finger, and included slash wounds and deep cuts.
During the carnage from the attack, Josef Gluck stepped in and fought off Thomas with a table and forced him to leave the house next door to a synagogue. When Thomas stepped into a grey Nissan Sentra — a car rented for him by his mother — Gluck took down the license plate.
Police used a license plate reader to track the car into Manhattan, where two NYPD arrested Thomas after stopping the car and noticing blood on Thomas’ hands and clothes and a strong odor of bleach.
While a Rockland grand jury indicted Thomas, he faces separate federal hate crime charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in White Plains.
Hanukkah party attack: Rabbi’s son slashed in head as victims fought to fend off machete
The five federal charges include attempted murder under the counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon and resulting in bodily injury.
Authorities found the machete under the front seat of the Sentra and a knife with blood and hair traces on a door pocket. The police are trying to connect the knife to the Nov. 20 attack.
A federal complaint filed Monday include descriptions of Grafton Thomas’ journal containing references to Nazism and Hitler.
Based on a court warrant approved Sunday, the FBI searched Thomas’ home and his cellular telephone, finding references to Jews, Hitler, the Nazi culture, as well as packaging for an 18-inch machete, according to the complaint signed by FBI Special Agent Julie Brown.
The hand-written journal also contained reference Black Hebrew Israelites — the extremist group linked to one of the shooters in the fatal attack on a kosher grocery store earlier this month in Jersey City, New Jersey.
His cellphone’s internet browser included November and December searches for topics such as “Why did Hitler hate the Jews, German Jewish Temples near me, Zionist Temples in Elizabeth, NJ, Zionist Temples of Staten Island, Prominent companies founded by Jews in America,” according to the complaint.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Monsey stabbing suspect Grafton Thomas indicted on attempted murder
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