A rabbinical student is in the hospital and a man is dead after an attack at a Brooklyn synagogue on Tuesday.
Police say Calvin Peters walked into the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights around 1:30am and stabbed 22-year-old Levi Rosenblat before being shot by police. Peters died at the hospital less than two hours later.
Family members last saw Peters leaving his Long Island home on Monday morning. That afternoon he tried to enter the synagogue but was stopped by security guard Shimon Liberow.
"I confronted him at the door," Liberow told the New York Post. "I stopped him from going in. I knew he was up to no good. He was surveying around. I said, 'Can I help you?' He said, 'You have a problem?' I said, 'Yes.'
"He asked if he can become Jewish, if he can convert," Liberow continued. "My friend told him you have to be Jewish to pray here. He abruptly left."
Peters returned at 00:45am on Tuesday and asked if there were any books written in English. He was told no, and was escorted out of the synagogue.
Peters returned at 01:36am and exhibited even more erratic behavior.
"He was just going crazy," a witness, Israel Gottdenger, told the Post. "He said, 'I want to sit down, I want to get a Bible, who wants to die tonight,' he kept changing his words. He was either really high on drugs or an (emotionally disturbed person)."
Chabad Rabbi Motti Seligson reported that Peters repeatedly yelled "Kill the Jews" during his tirade.
Rosenblat was studying when Peters approached him and allegedly said: "I'm going to kill you."
The student was stabbed in the left temple, and had lesser wounds on the left side of his face. Witnesses flagged passing NYPD officers, who confronted Peters with their guns drawn.
Explicit video footage of the encounter shows Peters with a nine-inch serrated knife in his hand as police repeatedly tell him to drop the weapon. At one point he complies, but picks up the knife again and approaches one of the officers.
Other officers close in as Peters paces hurriedly, and a gunshot is heard. Law enforcement officials said that Peters lunged at an officer.
"Backup officers continued to order the male to drop the knife," NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill said. "After repeated commands, one officer fired a single shot, striking the male in the torso."
Peters was taken to Kings County Hospital with a gunshot wound to the stomach, and died at 3:15am Rosenblat is in Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
