Woman Accused of Stabbing Crown Heights Chabad Bochur With Syringe Faces Federal Hate Crime Charges
by CrownHeights.info
The woman accused of stabbing a 26-year-old Chabad rabbinical student from Crown Heights with a suspected syringe in Manhattan’s Diamond District has been charged with two federal hate crimes, marking a significant escalation in the prosecution of the alleged antisemitic attacks.
Anna Mochalova, 32, was charged Wednesday in federal court in connection with two attacks on visibly Jewish men on October 21, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Each federal hate crime count carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years in prison if she is convicted.
As previously reported by CrownHeights.info, the first attack occurred on West 47th Street near Fifth Avenue, where the victim, identified as Yosef, a 26-year-old Chabad rabbinical student from Crown Heights, was allegedly followed and stabbed from behind with a sharp object believed to be a needle or syringe. He was transported by Hatzalah to Bellevue Hospital, where he was reported to be in stable condition.
Surveillance footage released after the attack showed the suspect approaching Yosef from behind before striking him and fleeing. Additional witness accounts indicated that the woman had approached another visibly Jewish pedestrian, raising concerns that the attacks were deliberate acts of antisemitism.
In a remarkable response to the frightening incident, Yosef returned to the Diamond District the following day to continue his daily work helping Jewish merchants and workers put on tefillin and encouraging them to perform additional mitzvos. In an interview published by Chabad.org and reported by CrownHeights.info, he explained that his response to the attack would be to continue spreading Jewish life and pride rather than retreating in fear.
The investigation subsequently expanded to include a second alleged attack near Sixth Avenue and West 45th Street, where another Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was allegedly stabbed in the forearm with a similar sharp object. According to federal prosecutors, the suspect had repeatedly bumped into the man before the stabbing and then warned him in Russian to run away because she had a gun.
Prosecutors also allege that Mochalova approached a third man wearing a yarmulke and asked whether he was Jewish. When the man replied that he was Muslim, she reportedly apologized and left.
