NY man who stabbed Israeli, shouted ‘Free Palestine’ sentenced to 5 years

NEW YORK — An attacker who shouted “Free Palestine” and stabbed a Jewish-Israeli man in New York City last year was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this month.

Vincent Sumpter pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced on October 8, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office told The Times of Israel on Monday.

Sumpter, who was 22 at the time of the attack, stabbed his victim in August 2024 in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, the home base of the Chabad Hasidic movement.

The attack took place near 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad’s revered world headquarters.

Sumpter was initially charged with eight felonies, including assault as a hate crime, according to an arrest report at the time.

Police said Sumpter shouted “Free Palestine” and “Do you want to die” before the stabbing.

Video released by Crown Heights Shmira, a neighborhood watch group, showed two Hasidic men in a confrontation with the attacker on a sidewalk. The assailant then thrusts his arm several times at the chest of one of the Jewish men, who staggers backward, the footage showed. The video did not include any recorded audio.

Graphic footage:

3) https://t.co/yOe7TIfCAn pic.twitter.com/mrMg7Q8OMH

— Crown Heights Shmira (@CHSPshmira) August 11, 2024

The victim, Yechiel Dabrowskin, told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster after the attack that he had been with friends at a Shabbat event when someone said, “There’s someone outside threatening kids.”

“I told him to go away,” Dabrowskin said in Hebrew in an interview from his hospital bed. “Suddenly, he pulled out a pocket knife.”

Dabrowskin said he was stabbed four centimeters away from his heart and had undergone surgery.

An online fundraiser for Dabrowskin, who is Israeli and came to Crown Heights to study in a yeshiva there, raised more than $20,000 within a day of the attack.

The stabbing took place during a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York City following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel.

The rate of antisemitic incidents has declined this year, according to NYPD data. Between January 1 and the end of September, there were 238 antisemitic incidents reported to police, compared to 271 during the same period in 2024, a 12 percent decrease.

Jews are still targeted in hate crimes in the city far more than any other group, with Jews having been the targets of 57% of all hate crimes in the city this year, police data showed.

Last month, there were 30 anti-Jewish incidents reported to police, a 20% increase over the same month last year. The antisemitic incidents in September represented 64% of all hate crimes in the city.

Attackers using the motto “Free Palestine” have carried out a series of violent attacks across the US, against Jews and others.

In December 2023, a man shouting “Free Palestine” fired a shotgun at a synagogue in Albany, New York. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In May, a man who allegedly shot to death two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, shouted “Free Palestine” after the attack.

The suspect in a firebombing attack on a rally for Israeli hostages in Colorado in June shouted “Free Palestine” during the incident.

The suspect in a mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota in August posted a video before the attack that included images of a notebook that had the “Free Palestine” slogan and antisemitic diatribes.

In September, a gunman opened fire at a New Hampshire country club, killing one person and wounding two. A witness said the shooter shouted “Free Palestine” during the attack, which did not appear to be connected to Israel or Jews.