A man named Vincent Sumpter has been charged with a hate crime following an alleged stabbing of a Jewish man near the Chabad Hasidic movement’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, in the United States.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday, and the victim, 33 years old, was hospitalized but is in stable condition.
Sumpter, 22, reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” and “Do you want to die?” at the victim before stabbing him during Shabbat near the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights, an area with a significant Orthodox Jewish population and close to Chabad’s global headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway.
Sumpter faces eight felony charges, including assault as a hate crime, according to the arrest report.
The spokesperson for Chabad, Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, noted that the incident took place around 2 a.m.
The victim, a member of the Chabad community named Yechiel Dabrowskin, was transported to a hospital, where he underwent surgery and is expected to be discharged within two days.
Eyewitnesses reported that Sumpter was acting aggressively before the attack, approaching multiple people and making threats.
One witness recounted, “He was looking for trouble, harassing others, and then he started physically threatening a group, shouting ‘do you want to die?’ and ‘Free Palestine.’ Then he got aggressive and pulled out a knife.”
Bystanders quickly intervened, chasing and detaining Sumpter until police arrived and made the arrest.
Footage released by Crown Heights Shmira, a local neighborhood watch group, showed two Hasidic men confronting a man with a backpack.
The video, which does not have audio, captures the moment Sumpter lunged at one of the men, who staggered backward after being stabbed.
Dabrowskin, who is Israeli and studying in a yeshiva in Crown Heights, shared from his hospital bed that he had been attending a Shabbat event when someone alerted him about a man outside threatening children.
“I told him to go away,” Dabrowskin recalled, “and suddenly he pulled out a pocket knife.” He was stabbed just four centimeters from his heart.
An online fundraiser for Dabrowskin quickly raised over $20,000 in the aftermath of the attack.
In response to the incident, the UJA-Federation of New York expressed its horror at the “senseless hate crime,” while the Anti-Defamation League confirmed its engagement with law enforcement.
Rabbi Behrman and others have linked the incident to the rise in pro-Palestinian rhetoric in New York City since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which have fueled ongoing conflict in Gaza.
“This incident serves as a warning of what can happen if hateful rhetoric continues,” Behrman stated. “When hate and incitement against a group are preached, violence inevitably follows.”
The Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Mark Treyger, echoed these concerns, describing the attack as “a dangerous escalation” of the current climate in the city and urging that it be viewed as part of a broader trend of increasing antisemitism.
Since October 7, antisemitic incidents in New York City have surged, with hundreds reported in the last ten months alone.
In July, there were 30 reported incidents, triple the number from the same period in 2024.
Jews have consistently been the primary targets of hate crimes in the city, outnumbering attacks on all other groups combined in most months over the past year.
Several post-October 7 incidents are under prosecution, including a case where a suspect allegedly punched a Jewish Israeli near Times Square while shouting antisemitic slurs in mid-October.
Another incident in April saw a man charged with hate crimes after he aimed his car at Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn.
