A Brooklyn woman accused of stabbing two Jewish men with a syringe in Midtown Manhattan now faces federal hate crime charges, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Anna Mochalova, 32, of Brighton Beach, was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, NBC New York reported. She faces two counts, each carrying up to 10 years in prison.
The attacks took place minutes apart on the evening of Oct. 21, in and around the Diamond District. According to court records, Mochalova followed a man dressed in traditional Hasidic clothing, pinned him against a car and jabbed him with a needle. A few blocks away, she allegedly stabbed a second man who was wearing a yarmulke, The Washington Times reported.
Prosecutors say she then asked a man walking with the second victim whether he was Jewish. When he said he was Muslim, she apologized and ran off, officials said.
Investigators have not determined what was in the syringe or whether it contained anything.
"Anna Mochalova deliberately and viciously targeted Jewish victims with violence," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a statement.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch also spoke about the case. "A hate crime is a message written in violence," she said, according to VIN News.
Police arrested Mochalova on Saturday. She has pleaded not guilty to state charges of assault as a hate crime, menacing as a hate crime, aggravated harassment and weapon possession, and was ordered held on $50,000 bail, NBC New York reported. She has since been moved to federal custody and was expected to appear in Manhattan federal court.
Antisemitic incidents account for nearly 53% of the hate crimes recorded in the city this year, even as overall violent crime has dropped, according to city figures cited by The Washington Times.