Ramapo police officers escort Grafton Thomas from Ramapo Town Hall. Photo / AP
Federal prosecutors on Monday filed hate crimes charges against the man accused of charging into a rabbi's New York home with a machete, wounding five as they celebrated Hanukkah.
A criminal complaint points to Grafton Thomas' handwritten journals and online search history as evidence the 37-year-old sought to target Jews, a day after Thomas' family said the suspect has "no known history of anti-Semitism" and attributed his alleged actions to "profound mental illness".
Authorities who arrested Thomas hours after his rampage in a suburb north of New York City found him with blood on his clothes and two weapons, including a machete, the complaint says. A cellphone recovered from his car revealed recent searches for phrases like "German Jewish Temples near me" and "Why did Hitler hate the Jews", the document states.
The new charges allege a hateful motive in an assault that some officials were already calling "domestic terrorism" and which quickly renewed fears of violence against Jewish communities after a spate of recent attacks. Saturday's stabbing in Monsey — the 13th anti-Semitic attack in three weeks in the state, the governor said — came as police around the region vowed to heighten security in response to concerns.
Thomas, a resident of Greenwood Lake, New York, pleaded not guilty on Sunday to five charges of attempted murder and one of burglary. His bail was set at $5 million (7.4m). With Monday's filing, he also faces five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon and causing injuries.
The suspect's browser history showed queries related to Nazis, Jews and synagogues dating back to at least November 9, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan by the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.
"Why did Hitler hate the Jews" was searched four times, the complaint says. The suspect also searched for Jewish and "Zionist" temples in New York and New Jersey, it says.
A day before Saturday's stabbing, the complaint says, Thomas accessed an article on New York City's decision to ramp up police presence in multiple Jewish neighbourhood amid fears of anti-Semitic violence.
Journals discovered in Thomas's home also include anti-Semitic sentiments, an FBI officer writes in the federal complaint.
Some writings refer to Adolf Hitler and "Nazi Culture" alongside drawings of a swastika and Star of David, the document says, and others question "why [people] mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide".
Thomas' lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment but the suspect's family sought to dispel accusations of anti-Semitism on Sunday, saying Thomas was not a member of any hate groups and "was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races".
The family pointed to Thomas' "long history of mental illness and hospitalisations", adding that attorney Michael Sussman plans to seek a mental health evaluation.
"We believe the actions of which he is accused, if committed by him, tragically reflect profound mental illness," Sussman said, for which "Grafton has received episodic treatment before being released".
Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and a longtime immigration hawk, on Monday triedto link the attack to unauthorised immigration.
"The attacker is the US citizen son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants. Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son," Cuccinelli said in a now-deleted tweet Monday.
Signed by President Ronald Reagan and passed on a bipartisan basis in Congress, the landmark 1986 law granted legal status to 2.7 million undocumented immigrants who entered the country before 1982.
DHS, the domestic anti-terror agency where Cuccinelli is second-in-command, did not immediately respond to requests for information about his allegations. Hours later, Cuccinelli's tweet was deleted.
Saturday's attack was the most recent in a string of violence targeting Jewish communities. Four people were fatally shot ata Jersey City kosher grocery store, an attack officials said was motivated by hatred of Jews and law enforcement.
New York Govenor Andrew M. Cuomo labelled the ambush an act of domestic terrorism and directed the state's Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate. He called for harsher punishments for mass attacks motivated by hatred of an identity group.
President Trump and leaders in Congress were also united in condemning anti-Semitism, though some Democrats said Trump should take a more forceful public stance and blamed him for stoking bigotry.
Trump tweeted, "The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night is horrific. We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism."
Rabbi Rottenberg told about last night's attack in Monsey: there was no warning, nothing said—just hate.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 29, 2019
"A country is not just what it does—it is also what it tolerates." I do not tolerate this
We must call this what it is: Domestic terrorism & our laws must treat it that way pic.twitter.com/HMJFtnkXWh
Saturday's stabbing shook a county where a third of the population is Jewish and where officials said anti-Semitism has risen in recent years as increasing numbers of Orthodox Jews have made homes there.
"People in the Orthodox community are connecting dots and are genuinely frightened of the escalation," said Rockland County legislator Aron Wieder.
Wieder said anti-Semitism began to rise in the area about a decade ago and has increased noticeably in the past five years. As more Orthodox Jews have moved into the community, other residents taunted them anonymously online, then etched swastikas onto the dirty window of a van and a "for sale" sign in front of a home. An ad for the county's Republican Party accused Wieder of "plotting a takeover" that threatens "our way of life".
Then, last month, a 30-year-old rabbi said two people approached him from behind on a secluded street in Monsey and beat him for several minutes. Police Chief Brad Weidel has said there is no evidence the man was targeted for his religion, but concerns flared up in the Orthodox community.
According to Monday's federal complaint, when the attacker entered the rabbi's house dozens of congregants were inside celebrating the end of Shabbat and the seventh night of Hanukkah, lighting candles and reciting prayers. He closed the door behind him and said, "No one is leaving".
He unsheathed a machete, described by witnesses as a sword nearly the size of a broomstick, and started slashing at random, moving through the entryway, then into the dining room and eventually towards the kitchen, where dozens of people — from children to senior citizens — were trying to flee through a back door.
Guest Joseph Gluck eventually hit the attacker in the head with a small coffee table from the entryway. Both men moved outside, and Gluck realised that the man was headed towards the synagogue, where congregants locked the doors after hearing the commotion at the rabbi's house. Gluck screamed warnings, then watched as the man tried a second door.
The attacker fled to a car and sped away. Authorities and witnesses said Gluck was able to catch the license plate number, the critical information that allowed authorities to catch the suspect in Harlem around midnight in a vehicle smelling of bleach, prosecutors said.
Authorities found him with a machete and a knife, both with what seemed to be traces of dried blood, Monday's federal complaint says.
Yisroel Kraus, a 26-year-old teacher who was celebrating Hanukkah at the rabbi's home with his family, said it was lucky that people had already started to filter out for the night.
"If he had come 10 minutes earlier, the place would have been packed," said Kraus. "No way to move. No way to run. It was a miracle. It was a Hanukkah miracle."
The woman was shaken by the incident.