‘I Will Kill Jews’ Attacker Shot Dead by Police at Chabad Headquarters in Brooklyn
Image by getty images
A knife-wielding man shouting ‘I will kill the Jew’ was shot and killed by police after he allegedly stabbed an Israeli rabbinic student inside the world headquarters of Chabad in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Calvin Peters, 51, was shot in the stomach by police after a confrontation inside 770 Eastern Parkway, where he set upon a 22-year-old student as he prayed around 1:45 am.
Peters was taken to Kings County Hospital where he died of his wounds
The rabbinic student, Levi Rosenviat, 22, of Beitar Illit in Gush Etzion, was lightly injured and is expected to recover.
The confrontation started when Peters entered the imposing building after midnight saying he was looking for a book, witnesses said. A Chabad spokesman told Israeli media that homeless men sometimes enter the world headquarters, which is open 24 hours a day, in order to get warm.
He later pulled out a knife and started ranting: “I will kill the Jew! I want to kill the Jew!” the Daily News reported.
Police and security guards reportedly flooded the building moments after the attack. Peters initially put down his knife, but then picked it back up again. Police ordered Peters to drop the knife and then shot him when he did not comply.
Police reportedly are calling the incident criminal, not terror-related, though with elements of a hate crime.
Rosenviat, who was listed in stable condition, arrived in New York two weeks ago, according to the Daily News.
A Chabad spokesman in Israel told Army Radio that the attack wasn’t terror-related or premeditated. “Incidents like these happen in Brooklyn every 15 minutes,” he said.
Brooklyn: 770 Eastern Pkwy. Police Involved Shooting U/D; Perp shot by NYPD & male stabbed reportedly in stable cond. pic.twitter.com/jA0yYQtUfu
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) December 9, 2014
With JTA
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
