Suspect in NYC antisemitic stabbing attacked Jews in 2 other incidents, feds say

Anna Mochalova, 32, was charged with two federal hate crimes in New York City over an alleged antisemitic stabbing, days after local charges. Prosecutors say she also attacked two other Jews — stabbing one in the forearm the same day and smashing a teenager's phone outside a Brooklyn yeshiva in June 2025. She is being held in detention. The criminal complaint added new allegations, including that she stabbed a man in the Diamond District and later attacked two other men. Each federal charge carries up to 10 years in prison.

Anna Mochalova, 32, was charged with two federal hate crimes in New York City on Wednesday, days after she was charged in a local court over an alleged antisemitic stabbing, federal prosecutors said. The criminal complaint added new allegations against her. An FBI investigator wrote that on October 21 at around 5:50 p.m., a Jewish man was walking in Manhattan's Diamond District when he noticed a woman, believed to be Mochalova, following him while speaking Russian. The victim, an Orthodox man who was identifiably Jewish, felt her stab him in the lower back with a sharp object, describing the pain as the feeling of a needle prick. Investigators believe the weapon was a needle but have not recovered it, and it was unclear whether any substances were inside it. Security footage captured her removing her hand from a bag and jabbing the man, who flinched and fled; the weapon was not visible. The 26-year-old victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition, the NYPD said. Shortly afterward, prosecutors say, Mochalova approached two other Jewish men wearing kippahs at Sixth Avenue and 45th Street, about two blocks south. She repeatedly bumped into one of them and, as he confronted her, stabbed him in the right forearm with a sharp object, according to the complaint. The victim, who speaks Russian, said she told him, "Run away. I have a gun." She asked the second man if he was Jewish; he replied, "I don't know. I'm Muslim?" She said she was "so sorry" and fled. The victim refused medical treatment. Three days later Mochalova was arrested for a transit violation in Brooklyn and was connected to the stabbings. Investigators also linked her to a June 2025 attack on a 19-year-old Jewish man outside a yeshiva on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, where she allegedly grabbed his phone and smashed it, saying she had come to search for someone who had "assaulted her friend's children in Los Angeles" and railing against "the Jewish community." Each federal hate crime charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. She pleaded not guilty to the local charges and is being held in detention. According to NYPD data, Jews are targeted in hate crimes in New York City more than all other groups combined, with at least 245 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes so far this year, 53% of the city's total.