When he was caught, the intruder was still covered in the blood of his victims — five Hasidic Jews he had stabbed wildly with a machete at a rabbi’s home while candles on the Hanukkah menorah still burned.
“This is terrorism, it is domestic terrorism,” Cuomo told reporters. “These are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence, generate fear based on race, colour, creed.”Thomas was arraigned on five counts of attempted murder and ordered held on $5 million bail, Ramapo town supervisor Michael Specht said on Twitter. He is due back in court Jan. 3.“We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
New York City’s police department said on Friday it was stepping up patrols in heavily Jewish neighbourhoods.Some neighbours said Thomas, who is from Greenwood Lake, New York, about 20 miles from Monsey, was an unassuming person who often played basketball at a local park and did not appear troubled.
“There hasn’t been anyone who has given a real solution to deal with a grown man who is dealing with schizophrenia, other than ‘Go home and call us if something happens,’ ” Paige said.