Federal prosecutors Monday filed hate crime charges against a man accused of going on a stabbing rampage during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home north of New York City, saying the suspect kept journals containing references to Adolf Hitler and "Nazi culture."
The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed the charges after the suspect, Grafton Thomas, was arraigned Sunday on five counts of attempted murder in a state court in the town of Ramapo.
Thomas is accused of stabbing five people Saturday night with what the criminal complaint described as a "machete" after bursting into a Hanukkah celebration that included dozens of people at Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's home in Rockland County, about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City.