New York man who stabbed Orthodox Jew charged with hate crime

‘I had a miracle,’ says Chabad man who was stabbed outside of 770 in Brooklyn, noting that how close stab wounds came to vital organs.

By World Israel News Staff

A 22-year-old New York man who harassed Jews outside of the headquarters of a Hasidic movement in Brooklyn and stabbed a passerby during an ensuing confrontation has been charged with a hate crime, based on his comments made during the incident.

On Saturday, at approximately 2:00 a.m., 22-year-old Brooklyn resident Vincent Sumpter approached a group of Jewish youths walking down the street on Kingston Avenue, around the corner from 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, the center of operations of the Chabad – Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

According to witnesses, Sumpter harassed the youths and others passing by, shouting “Free Palestine” and a series of antisemitic slurs.

Several young men were alerted to Sumpter’s behavior and approached him.

During the ensuing confrontation, Sumpter shouted “Do you want to die?” and drew a knife.

Sumpter then stabbed one of the men and attempted to stab another, before he fled the scene.

Several of the men who confronted Sumpter pursued him and apprehended him, turning him over to New York Police Department officers.

Authorities have charged Sumpter with second-degree assault as a hate crime.

The victim, Yechiel Michel Dabrowskin, spoke with Israel’s Kan 11 over the weekend, noting that had the knife wounds been several centimeters over, they could have caused life threatening damage to his vital organs.

“It’s very, very painful,” Dabrowskin said. “I had internal bleeding but thank God I had a miracle.”

“At 2 a.m. they were saying that there was a person outside who was threatening children and teenagers,” Dabrowskin continued. “I heard him say, ‘Free Palestine,’ ‘You want to die?’ I asked him to leave.”

Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, a Chabad community activist, said Sunday evening that he had visited with Dabrowskin, and that Dabrowskin is expected to be released from the hospital on Monday or Tuesday.

“I visited the victim in the hospital tonight,” Behrman tweeted. He is grateful to be alive and understands that if he had been stabbed just 4 centimeters away, the result would have been very different. He is recovering and will hopefully be released in the next 24 to 48 hours.”