Man Screamed "I Want to Kill the Jew!" Before Stabbing Jewish Student
Police in Brooklyn earlier today shot and killed a deranged knife-wielding man who moments earlier burst into a synagogue and stabbed a 22-year-old rabbinical student from Israel.
The assailant was identified as Calvin Peters, 49, a long time resident of Brooklyn and Long Island, with a lengthy criminal record and apparent mental illness.
Peters slipped past security guards and entered the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights around 1:40 a.m. (EST), confronting students studying in the building, police said.
Peters shouted threats, various witnesses told police. He was heard screaming, “I want to kill the Jew!” according to the New York Daily News.
The victim was Levi Yitzchak Rosenblat, from Beitar Illit, Israel, according to the Chabad-Lubavitch website. He was reported in stable condition with a head wound on Tuesday.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton told the New York Times the attack was “not a terrorism incident.”
John Miller, the anti-terrorism supervisor for the New York Police Department, told the Daily News that Peters was emotionally disturbed and “has a history of acting out in other places.”
The synagogue is one of the leading centers for the Chabad movement, dedicated to encouraging Jews around the world to be more observant, the New York Times reported. It is often crowded with students studying at all hours of the day.
