{"id":325201,"date":"2026-08-19T19:48:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325201\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T19:48:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:48:45","slug":"bronx-man-charged-with-hate-crimes-in-manhattan-synagogue-attack-doj-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325201\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx man charged with hate crimes in Manhattan synagogue attack, DOJ says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, has been charged with two federal hate crime counts and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury following an alleged attack during Shabbat services at a Manhattan synagogue, the Justice Department announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the criminal complaint, Montes disrupted a Friday night Shabbat service on Aug. 14 attended by approximately 375 people at Central Synagogue, standing up and shouting before striking and damaging two ceremonial silver candlesticks with gold accents. As security personnel attempted to remove him, Montes allegedly punched a woman attending the service. Later, while being handcuffed by security guards and law enforcement, he allegedly directed a racial slur at a Black security guard, spat in the guard\u2019s face and headbutted him near his left eye socket. The complaint also alleges that Montes said he planned to return to the synagogue at a later date.<\/p>\n

During a recorded, Mirandized post-arrest interview, Montes made explicitly antisemitic statements and described his actions at the synagogue as \u201call a racial thing\u201d and \u201call religious motivated,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Montes is currently in state custody and will be transported to Manhattan federal court at a later date to face the federal charges, which were filed in the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said the charges demonstrate that the department \u201cwill intervene to protect the public in the face of antisemitic and racially motivated attacks,\u201d adding that Americans\u2019 right to worship without fear of bias-motivated violence \u201cis sacrosanct and must be protected at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald for the Southern District of New York said Montes \u201cdisrupted worship, struck a congregant, damaged synagogue property, and spat on and headbutted a security guard,\u201d vowing that her office \u201cwill work tirelessly to ensure the defendant is held fully accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. of the New York Field Office described Montes\u2019s alleged \u201ctargeted acts of violence\u201d as \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d and commended the swift response of security personnel and first responders. NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch credited an NYPD sergeant who was present at the scene with taking Montes into custody and praised the work of the department\u2019s Hate Crimes Task Force and its federal partners.<\/p>\n

Each hate crime count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, while the religious-property charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years, according to the Justice Department. These statutory maximums are prescribed by Congress, and any sentence would ultimately be determined by a judge.<\/p>\n

The case is being prosecuted by the Southern District of New York\u2019s Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit within its Criminal Division, in consultation with the Justice Department Civil Rights Division\u2019s Criminal Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith C. Foster is in charge of the prosecution.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The charges contained in the complaint are allegations. Montes is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.<\/p>\n

\n This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times’ AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times’ original reporting, wire services, and\/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy<\/a> or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, has been charged with two federal hate crime counts and one count…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-325201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325201","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=325201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}