Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged a Russian woman, Anna Mochalova, with federal hate crimes over the stabbing of two visibly Jewish men with a needle-like object in the Diamond District on October 21. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr., and NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch announced the charges on Wednesday. Mochalova, 32, faces two counts of committing hate crimes, each carrying up to 10 years in prison. She was transferred from state custody on Wednesday and was to be presented in Manhattan federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger.
As alleged in the federal complaint, the attacks came minutes apart on the evening of Wednesday, October 21. At about 5:50 p.m., a Jewish man was walking along West 47th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, wearing attire traditionally worn by Orthodox Jewish men — a black hat, a black suit, a white shirt and tzitzit — when he noticed Mochalova following him and speaking in Russian. Prosecutors say she stabbed him in the lower back with a sharp object he described as the feeling of a needle prick, then walked past him toward Sixth Avenue. State prosecutors say the man, a 26-year-old Chabad rabbi, was cornered against a parked vehicle, suffered a cut, bleeding and substantial pain, and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Minutes later, at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and West 45th Street, about two blocks south, Mochalova approached two Jewish men wearing yarmulkes, the complaint says. She bumped into one of them, a 37-year-old, multiple times, and as he began to confront her he saw her stab him in his right forearm with the sharp object. Speaking Russian, she told him, in substance, “run away, I have a gun.” She then asked the second man if he was Jewish. He answered, in substance, “I don’t know, I’m Muslim?” — and she told him she “was so sorry” and fled north on Sixth Avenue, prosecutors say.
What she used has still not been identified. The complaint describes a sharp object consistent with a needle, and U.S. Attorney McDonald said the attack was “made all the more terrifying because the specific weapon used — and its potential contents — remain unknown pending further investigation.” McDonald said in full: “This Office will continue to seek justice for victims of hate-based crimes and will aggressively prosecute those who seek to spread bigotry through violence. As alleged, Anna Mochalova deliberately and viciously targeted Jewish victims with violence. Mochalova allegedly stabbed two men specifically because they were Jewish. Mochalova’s alleged actions were an attack on the fundamental right to freely and safely express one’s religious identity in public.”
In the state courtroom, Assistant District Attorney Emily Hong told the judge: “She selected both of her targets because she believed them to be Jewish,” calling the conduct “scary and concerning.” Mochalova’s Legal Aid attorney, Lila Carpenter, answered that “these allegations are concerning — whether they’re my client’s is a different story,” saying there may be an identification issue and stressing that her client has no prior arrests and is gainfully employed.
The rabbi, identified in coverage only as Yosef, said he had never met his attacker: “She passes by other people. I’m visibly Jewish.” He said it was the first time he had experienced antisemitism in America — and he was back on the same street the next day, resuming the outreach work he was doing when he was attacked, citing his grandparents, who survived the Holocaust: “They went on to build a Jewish home after the Holocaust. If they could survive, I must go back to spread the light.” A coordinator with Manhattan Shomrim, Yitty, welcomed the bail decision: “Having her back outside is just a danger to everybody outside. She needs to get help.”
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Barnacle said: “Acts of hate and harassment have no place in our city. The alleged hate-motivated crimes committed against Jewish members of our community are unacceptable and have no place in New York. We will continue to use the full force of the law to protect the safety, security, and rights of every New Yorker, including members of our Jewish community.” Commissioner Tisch said: “A hate crime is a message written in violence, and this defendant’s message was loud and clear. As alleged in the complaint, Anna Mochalova attacked two visibly Jewish New Yorkers, striking fear in an entire community. Every New Yorker has the right to walk our streets safe from hatred and violence, and the NYPD will always hold those who threaten that right accountable.”
The federal case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit, with consultation from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and a state court appearance was also scheduled for October 29. The charges land in a city where NYPD figures show hate crimes rose nearly 13 percent in the first nine months of the year and anti-Jewish incidents made up more than half of them — 245 of 463 confirmed cases through September. For the visibly Jewish New Yorkers who live and work on West 47th Street, the promise now being tested is a simple one: that a man can walk home in a black hat and tzitzit without being hunted for it. The charges are allegations, and Mochalova is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
📣 Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram — breaking news first
Follow @profilopoliticsnews for every update on this story.