![\"Shabbat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/n2bg4x5urz4fgov2.jpg\")
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NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors announced hate crime charges<\/a> Tuesday against a man accused of carrying out a violent disruption<\/a> at a Manhattan synagogue during a religious service last week.<\/p>\n The Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled charges against 46-year-old Larry Montes, including two counts of committing hate crimes and one count of destruction of religious property resulting in bodily injury, according to a press release.<\/p>\n Montes was already facing<\/a> state-level hate crime charges in connection with the incident, according to previous FOX 5 N.Y. reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Assault at Central Synagogue <\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n Authorities said the charges stem from an attack during a Friday night Shabbat service at Central Synagogue. According to investigators, Montes allegedly disrupted the ongoing worship service, damaged synagogue property and physically attacked people inside.<\/p>\n During the disruption, Montes also allegedly struck a 63-year-old congregant and damaged religious property inside the sanctuary while doing so. When a security officer attempted to intervene, prosecutors say Montes subjected the guard to a violent assault, spitting on and headbutting him.<\/p>\n An NYPD sergeant working as an off-duty paid detail at the house of worship took Montes into custody at the scene, the DOJ said. Part of the incident was captured on the synagogue’s live stream.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n In statements released Tuesday, law enforcement leaders emphasized that bias-motivated attacks on religious institutions will be met with federal prosecution.<\/p>\n “Americans\u2019 fundamental right to worship without fear of bias-motivated violence is sacrosanct and must be protected at all costs,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Montes remains in state custody and will be transferred to Manhattan federal court to face the federal charges at a later date.<\/p>\n The Source: Information from FOX 5 N.Y. reporting and the Department of Justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crime and Public Safety<\/a>News<\/a>Manhattan<\/a>New York<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors announced hate crime charges Tuesday against a man accused of carrying out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[850,75,9,24,12,56,63,122,124,123,618],"class_list":["post-324359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}