What to Know
- The suspect in the Hanukkah stabbings in Rockland County was indicted Friday on six counts of attempted murder and multiple other charges, his lawyer confirms to News 4
- Thirty-seven-year-old Grafton Thomas, the alleged attacker, is also facing three counts of assault, three counts of attempted assault and two counts of burglary
- He faces up to 25 years in prison on the new charges
The suspect in the Hanukkah stabbings in Rockland County was indicted Friday on six counts of attempted murder and multiple other charges, his lawyer confirms to News 4.
Thirty-seven-year-old Grafton Thomas, the alleged attacker, is also facing three counts of assault, three counts of attempted assault and two counts of burglary. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
"This was an extremely brutal attack," Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh said in a statement. There were previously said to be five victims, but Walsh's statement said Thomas allegedly slashed "at least six individuals."
Thomas allegedly stabbed people attending a Hanukkah celebration Saturday in Monsey, New York. The attack has left 72-year-old Josef Neumann, one of the victims, unconscious and with severe head injuries.
His lawyer Michael Sussman maintains that Thomas is not anti-Semitic, but mentally ill and in need of treatment. Thomas' mother, who is a nurse in the Bronx, said Thursday he had been off his medications since October, although she said she checks on him to make sure he is taking them.
Hanukkah Stabbings in Monsey
Five people were attacked at a rabbi's home
Authorities are still trying to determine if this past weekend's attack is connected to another attack in Monsey Nov. 20, when a man was stabbed multiple times on his way to a synagogue just before dawn.
Police said they initially questioned Thomas after the Nov. 20 attack, since Thomas' mother’s car came up as being in the area at the time. Police subsequently interviewed them both, saw nothing suspicious and left.
Thomas is currently in federal custody.
