Illustrative: Anti-Israel protesters target a synagogue in Queens, New York on July 14, 2024. Photo: Screenshot

i24 News — Vincent Sumpter, a 22-year-old accused of stabbing a Jewish man over the weekend, was indicted, according to reports on Monday.

At around 2:00 am on Saturday morning, Sumpter allegedly approached a group of Jewish people on Kingston Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Footage showed an assailant stabbing of 30-year-old Yechiel Michael Dabrowskin before chasing the group and then turning to flee.

Sumpter was reportedly charged with eight felonies including assault as a hate crime for the incident.

The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment. Rabbi Yaakov Berman, the Chabad spokesman for the community, said that Sumpter asked the group during the altercation, “Do you want to die?” and shouted, “Free Palestine!”

“This is an extremely serious incident,” Berman posted on X/Twitter. “The victim could have been killed. This act of hateful violence highlights the dangerous impact of antisemitic incitement and hate propagated by some local politicians and leaders in New York and across the United States.”

Dabrowskin is Israeli and came to Crown Heights, the site of the attack, to study in a yeshiva there. The stabbing took place near the Chabad Hasidic movement’s headquarters.

The incident came amid heightened tensions in the US, with a sharp increase in hate crimes against Jews being recorded amid the Israel-Hamas war.