A Brooklyn woman faces hate crime charges after allegedly attacking two Jewish men minutes apart in Midtown Manhattan, one of them a rabbi stabbed with a syringe, as antisemitic incidents keep climbing citywide.
Anna Mochalova, 32, was arrested Saturday evening and arraigned on charges tied to the two Midtown assaults, which left one man hospitalized and another with a cut forearm, Fox News reported.
Prosecutors say she targeted men she believed were Jewish. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating both incidents near the Diamond District, and the case lands amid rising confirmed hate crime numbers across New York City.
The criminal complaint places the first attack outside 15 W. 47th St. around 5:50 p.m. Wednesday. A 26-year-old man dressed in traditional Hasidic clothing told investigators a woman approached and followed him. When he was cornered against a vehicle, he felt a sharp, stinging sensation in his lower back, then a cut, bleeding, and substantial pain. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
About five minutes later, a 37-year-old man wearing a yarmulke waited to cross at Sixth Avenue and West 45th Street. He felt repeated pushing from behind, then a painful sting in his right forearm. He turned and saw a woman matching the first victim’s description. He told investigators she threatened him in Russian, warning she had a gun and would shoot him if he did not leave, and allegedly reached toward the inside of her jacket. He declined medical attention.
The second victim also told investigators he watched the woman approach another man nearby and ask in English whether he was Jewish. When the man said he was Muslim, she apologized and walked away.
The New York Post reported the first victim was a rabbi stabbed with a syringe, and that a prosecutor told the court Mochalova chose her targets because she believed them to be Jewish.
"She selected both of her targets because she believed them to be Jewish," the prosecutor said.
That selective approach, striking men who looked Jewish while sparing a man who said he was Muslim, sits at the center of the hate crime theory now before the court. It is the kind of street-level targeting that leaves lawful residents and religious communities asking how safe Midtown still is after dark.
Cases like this also fuel the larger New York fight over bail, enforcement, and who gets left exposed when soft policies meet hard violence, a tension already on display as GOP challenger Saritha Komatireddy pressed Letitia James on crime and bail in the attorney general race.
A Hate Crimes Task Force detective reviewed surveillance video from West 47th Street and created a still image of the suspect. Another NYPD officer recognized Mochalova from previous interactions, according to the complaint provided by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Police confirmed the Saturday evening arrest.
Manhattan Shomrim Safety Patrol announced the custody news on X after volunteers, tips, and public appeals helped push the case forward.
"The suspect wanted for Wednesday’s two hate crime assaults in Midtown Manhattan is now in custody."
Just The News reported community confirmation that one victim is a young man from Crown Heights with deep Lubavitch roots.
"I can confirm the victim is a young man from Crown Heights whose family has deep roots in the neighborhood and is part of the Lubavitch community. We appreciate law enforcement's response. I understand they have a suspect in custody."
Yaacov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad Headquarters in Crown Heights, delivered that update as local Jewish safety groups tracked the manhunt. The first victim, identified by the Post as a rabbi, later said he believed his appearance made him a target and returned to the area the next day for Jewish outreach.
Front-line policing still matters in these cases, which is why stories about the NYPD rank-and-file under strain keep resonating with readers who want officers free to do the job.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed Mochalova was arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault as a hate crime, one count of second-degree menacing as a hate crime, and two counts each of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree aggravated harassment.
A judge set bail at $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond, half what prosecutors requested. Her next court appearance is Oct. 29.
Legal Aid attorney Lila Carpenter challenged the identification at Sunday’s arraignment before Judge Linda Capitti.
"These allegations are concerning. Whether they’re my client’s is a different story."
That is a defense lawyer’s job. It does not erase the complaint’s timeline, the surveillance still, the officer recognition, or the second victim’s account of a Russian-language gun threat and a deliberate check on whether a third man was Jewish.
Bail fights and revolving-door outcomes remain a live issue in New York politics, the same terrain covered when Saritha Komatireddy overwhelmed Letitia James in a heated AG debate over crime consequences.
Confirmed hate crimes across New York City rose nearly 13% during the first nine months of 2026 compared with the same period the year before, according to NYPD figures cited in the coverage. Anti-Jewish incidents accounted for more than half of the city’s 463 confirmed hate crimes. Police recorded 245 anti-Jewish hate crimes through September, up from 242 in the same stretch of 2025.
StopAntisemitism condemned the Midtown attacks on X with a blunt question about the city’s direction.
"What has happened [to NYC], a once safe haven for Jews?"
Former FBI Special Agent Nicole Parker has flagged "disproportionately high" threats against the Jewish community, and the Secret Service has reported an "unprecedented" 40% increase in overall threats since January. Those trend lines do not decide this case. They do explain why two knife-or-syringe style stings against visibly Jewish men in the Diamond District, minutes apart, land with special force.
City leadership still faces pressure on public safety and immigration enforcement after high-profile violence, including coverage of how Mayor Mamdani answered a Bronx shooting with an ICE abolition demand instead of a clear law-and-order reset.
The complaint does not treat the weapon as a settled syringe in the police statement given to Fox News Digital, even as Post reporting described a syringe attack on the rabbi. Investigators still have to prove the charges. What they have already put on paper is a short, ugly sequence: follow, sting, threaten, check a stranger’s faith, and move on when the answer is not Jewish.
Jewish New Yorkers should not need a yarmulke disclaimer to walk Midtown without getting cut. Prosecutors charged a hate crime because the facts point there, and the city’s own numbers say the threat is not imaginary.