A suspect who allegedly yelled "Free Palestine" before stabbing a Jewish man on the weekend is being charged with a hate crime, New York City police said on Monday, according to CBS News.
The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Vincent Sumpter, was engaged in a verbal argument with the victim moments before slashing the 33-year-old, police said.
Surveillance video of the attack in Crown Heights, Brooklyn shows a man lunging with a knife at a group of men and slashing one in the torso.
The incident occurred at around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. The victim's friend told CBS News the group had just finished a Shabbat meal at the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters when the suspect crossed the street and shouted at them.
"The guy started to say, 'Free Palestine,' and stuff like that... Two of my friends came a little bit closer and told him to go away," the victim’s friend recalled. "And after a couple of minutes, the guy said, like, 'You wanna die, what's going on?'... We said nobody wants to die, go away, we're going to call the police... It was like a second - took a knife, opened it like that, and stabbed him by the stomach."
Sumpter is being charged with hate crime assault and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.
The man who was stabbed was rushed to the hospital in stable condition.
Antisemitism has been on the rise across the US since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza which followed.
In recent weeks, an antisemitic “Hamas truck” has been menacing Jewish residents of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The black Ford F-150 pickup truck has had blood-red paint applied to it, including images of bloody handprints that appear to reference the infamous photograph of a man raising his bloody hands in the air in triumph following the brutal lynching of two IDF reservists in Ramallah in 2000.
Earlier this month, a 28-year-old woman was arrested in connection with the antisemitic vandalism of the homes of the director of the Brooklyn Museum and other museum officials.
In late July, anti-Israel protesters waved Hamas flags and held up a portrait of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during a demonstration in New York City's Times Square.