MONSEY, N.Y. (AP) A man accused of storming into a rabbis home and stabbing five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City was raised to embrace tolerance but has a history of mental illness, his family said.
Grafton Thomas has a long history of mental illness and hospitalizations. He has no history of like violent acts and no convictions for any crime, his family said late Sunday in a statement issued by attorney Michael Sussman. He has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races. He is not a member of any hate groups.
We believe the actions of which he is accused, if committed by him, tragically reflect profound mental illness, the statement said.
Police tracked a fleeing suspect to Manhattan and made an arrest within two hours of the attack Saturday night in Monsey.
The stabbings on the seventh night of Hanukkah left one person critically wounded, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The rabbis son was also injured, he said.
Thomas, 37, was arraigned Sunday and pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Bail was set at $5 million, and he remains jailed.
The attack was the latest in a string of violence targeting Jews in the region, including a Dec. 10 massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue.
Cuomo said the savagery was the 13th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8.
The Jewish community is utterly terrified, Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. No one should have to live like this.
