Police say there is no evidence to link the accused attacker of Jews at a rabbi’s home in Monsey last Saturday night to an earlier stabbing in the area.
Brad Weidel, the chief of the Town of Ramapo Police Department, which covers Monsey, New York, said this on Thursday, according to JTA.
His comments followed reports that the Monsey stabbing suspect, Grafton Thomas, was questioned in connection with a stabbing close to a synagogue near Monsey that left an Orthodox Jewish man critically injured in November.
Weidel said the car of Thomas’ mother matched the description of a vehicle seen on security footage in Monsey near the time of the earlier attack, but no positive link has been made.
Shortly after the November 20 incident, Ramapo police said they do not believe that the stabbing was a hate crime.
Thomas was arrested in the Saturday night attack at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg which left five people injured. One of them, 71-year-old Josef Neumann, is fighting for his life as a result of injuries to his head and brain caused by a machete.
US authorities have reportedly uncovered evidence that Thomas was looking for information on Nazi culture, swastikas, anti-Semitic ideas, locations of Jewish synagogues around him, and also asked the question: "Why did Hitler hate the Jews?"
Thomas’ lawyer, Michael Sussman, told reporters on Monday that his client has been hospitalized for mental illness and added he had requested a 30-day mental health evaluation after speaking to Grafton behind bars, who he claimed appears to be suffering from hallucinations and is allegedly hearing voices.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)