Man who rammed a car into NYC Jewish site had recently connected with Chabad community, police say

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NEW YORK (AP) — A man who drove his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City had recently been trying to connect with the Hasidic Jewish community and was recorded on video enthusiastically dancing with congregants during a recent visit to the site, police said.

Investigators were still trying to piece together what prompted the man, Dan Sohail, 36, to ram his car repeatedly into a set of doors at the revered Hasidic Jewish center in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, but police charged him Thursday with attempted assault as a hate crime, based on the fact that the building was a Jewish institution.

“Earlier this month, Sohail attended a social gathering at this very same location,” New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news conference, noting there was video circulating online of that gathering.

The video appears to show Sohail dancing with Orthodox men inside the headquarters.

“We believe that he was in Brooklyn last night to continue this attempt to connect with the Lubavitch Jewish community," Kenny said.

Sohail told police that he lost control of his car because he was wearing “clunky boots,” Kenny said, though Kenny added that Sohail had removed several blockades and cleared snow away from a sidewalk before driving into the building.

The complex at 770 Eastern Parkway includes a synagogue and offices, and was packed with worshippers at the time, but no one was injured. Some of the building’s doors were damaged. No weapons were discovered in Sohail’s car.

Sohail's father told the New York Daily News Thursday that his son had been considering converting to Judaism and that he had struggled with “mental problems.” The Forward, a media outlet centered on Jewish issues, interviewed a rabbi in New Jersey who said Sohail attended a Purim service at Chabad last year and visited two other times, looking for spiritual guidance.

“I was able to talk to him for a few minutes and see that he’s not exactly stable,” Rabbi Levi Azimov told the Forward. Another rabbi at a Jewish school in Carteret, New Jersey, where Sohail lived, told the Forward he had dropped by for afternoon prayers on Tuesday but began yelling about feeling let down by Chabad after the service.

The crash occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson becoming the leader of the Lubavitch movement and prompted immediate concern in the city. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city's police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, rushed to the scene to brief the media, with officials announcing increased security around houses of worship across the city.

“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and the history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world," Mamdani said. “And on today of all days.”

The Chabad Lubavitch headquarters and synagogue in Brooklyn draws thousands of visitors each year. There is a near constant police presence around the complex.