Woman Charged With Hate Crimes After Alleged Needle Attacks on Jewish Men in Manhattan

A 32-year-old Brooklyn woman, Anna Mochalova, was arrested Saturday and arraigned Sunday on hate crime and other charges over alleged needle attacks on two Jewish men in Manhattan's Diamond District, police and court records said. The charges include assault as a hate crime, menacing, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. Prosecutors said she followed and harassed a man in Hasidic clothing on West 47th Street at about 5:50 p.m. on Oct. 21. He felt a stabbing sensation and later saw he was bleeding. About five minutes later, authorities said, she allegedly stabbed a second man with a needle and told him she had a gun and would kill him. Police said she then asked a third man if he was Jewish, and apologized and left when he said he was Muslim. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating. Her lawyer, Lila Carpenter, said she believes Mochalova was wrongly identified. Mochalova is due back in court Oct. 29.

The right-leaning Daily Mail and Just the News center the victim. The Daily Mail calls the attack "chilling" and focuses on Yosef, a 26-year-old rabbi, citing online video and his own belief that he was targeted for being visibly Jewish. It places a 37-year-old victim a few hours earlier and includes the lawyer's doubts. Just the News stresses the Brooklyn suspect and the rabbi, and quotes Yaacov Behrman of Chabad in Crown Heights on the victim's community roots. CBS News, on the left, leads with the arraignment and prosecutors' account. It features the alleged threat, the Muslim man and shaken Diamond District business owners, one fearing quick release. It puts the second attack five minutes after the first and, in the excerpt, omits the lawyer's challenge. All agree on the name, age and hate crime framing. NewsNation uniquely foregrounds the lawyer's doubts and the next court date.