DA: Stabbing Of Rabbi In Brighton Was A Hate Crime

Boston MA

08 July, 2021

5:12 PM

Description

BOSTON — Suffolk County prosecutors filed hate crime charges Thursday against the man accused of brutally stabbing a rabbi in Brighton last week. Khaled Awad, 24, who pleaded not guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer and other charges last week, was in Brighton Superior District Court Thursday for a dangerousness hearing. With the new charges, the dangerousness hearing where prosecutors will argue Awad should be held without bail was rescheduled to July 29. Prosecutors said Awad stabbed Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky eight or nine times in front of the Jewish Day School in Brighton last Thursday. Jewish community leaders pressured prosecutors to file the hate crime charges sooner, but prosecutors said they needed more time to gather evidence. Stephen Weymouth, Awad's attorney, told NBC News 10 Boston the new charges under the federal Civil Rights Act were "slim." He said the stabbing occurred during an attempted robbery and that his client denies making antiemetic statements prosecutors discussed in court Thursday. In court Thursday, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Margaret Hegarty said Khaled Awad is originally from Egypt. He arrived in the U.S. with biased views against Jews, Christians, and American culture, during a court hearing on Thursday. Since Awad's arraignment last Friday, prosecutors have interviewed people who knew him. The acquaintances said he made "statements like 'All Jews are stingy and evil' and 'They are evil and control the world'," Hegarty said. During a vigil for Noginsky Friday, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachel Rollins said she had planned to request this dangerousness hearing for Awad. "We believe this was rooted in antisemitism," Rollins said Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, says he has been angry that prosecutors took as long as they did to call this a hate crime.