Dan Sohail, 36, is the man suspected of driving a car into the doors to a synagogue at Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, five times on Wednesday evening, Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives at the New York City Police Department, said at a press conference on Thursday.
The suspect, of Carteret, N.J., "had recently connected with the Lubavitch community," and removed blockades from the same site the prior day, Kenny said, according to JNS.
"This incident is being investigated as a hate crime, and the NYPD's hate crime task force took the lead on this case," Kenny stated. "We are collaborating with our state and federal partners."
He added that the suspect has been charged with "attempted assault one and two as a hate crime, reckless endangerment two as a hate crime, criminal mischief two and three as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime."
The suspect claimed he lost control of the car because he was wearing clunky boots, the chief of detectives said. "It's a hate crime based on his attack of the synagogue," Kenny said, noting that the suspect knew it was a synagogue.
Video footage from Wednesday’s incident appears to show the suspect removing barricades and telling bystanders to move before he began ramming his car into entrance doors to Chabad's global headquarters in Brooklyn.
The suspect was at the location weeks prior, reportedly claiming that he was Jewish, and young students were said to have offered him religious services, according to JNS.
The NYPD said that no one was injured in the attack and that the driver was arrested without incident. The department told JNS that it responded at about 8:45 p.m. to 770 Eastern Parkway, where officers saw a gray Honda sedan which "collided into entrance doors at the bottom of a sloped driveway in front of 770 Eastern Parkway."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were among those who issued comments on Wednesday night. The governor said that "for the second day in a row, Jewish New Yorkers were the targets of antisemitic violence" and that "an attack against the Jewish community is an attack against all New Yorkers."
The mayor said that the ramming at Chabad "is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world."
"Any threat to a Jewish institution or place of worship must be taken seriously," added the mayor. "Antisemitism has no place in our city, and violence or intimidation against Jewish New Yorkers is unacceptable."