Man accused of ramming NYC synagogue no-shows bail hearing after ‘altercation’ in jail

BROOKLYN (CN) — Prosecutors have had trouble dragging a New Jersey man, accused of ramming his car into a Brooklyn synagogue, to court for a bail hearing after the man no-showed another scheduled appearance on Friday.

Dan Sohail, 36, is federally charged with intentionally damaging religious property — and faces a parallel state prosecution for hate crimes — after prosecutors say he blew the door off the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement with his Honda Accord in January.

No one was injured in the incident.

“There have been issues getting the defendant to court,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Silverberg said at what was supposed to be a bail hearing on Friday.

It was the second bail hearing this week Sohail refused to attend. Silverberg said Sohail also missed a hearing last week after getting into an “altercation” with another inmate in a holding cell.

Silverberg said Sohail is suffering from “mental health issues” that justify his ongoing detention.

“Defendant is accused of deliberately ramming a car into a synagogue five times,” he told a federal magistrate judge, backing up his argument that Sohail poses a “danger to the community.”

Sohail’s public defender, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, agreed to his detention pending the federal case, in which he faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Sohail has pleaded not guilty.

According to his criminal complaint, surveillance footage shows Sohail driving up to the Crown Heights synagogue just before 9 p.m. Jan. 28, moving barricades and directing congregants away from the entrance.

“Sohail returned to his vehicle and, in the presence of a crowd of people, drove his car into the building’s side entrance,” prosecutors claim. “He then reversed his vehicle before accelerating again into the entrance four additional times.”

Inside, the synagogue was hosting an event marking the anniversary of the death of the Chabad movement’s leader, attended by dozens of congregants, according to court papers.

Prosecutors say the crash knocked the door off its hinges and destroyed Sohail’s car bumper but caused no injuries. He was arrested at the scene.

In custody, prosecutors say Sohail told them “that he had recently learned he had Jewish heritage and was in the process of learning more about the Jewish tradition” and had been invited to the synagogue event that night.

He also said he had lost control of the car because of icy conditions and “because he was wearing heavy boots, which caused him to press the gas pedal.”

New York officials quickly denounced the incident as antisemitic. Sohail’s family, however, says he has a history of mental illness and erratic behavior.

His attorney previously told the court Sohail was in the process of converting to Judaism and had visited the synagogue before. Videos circulated online after the crash that appeared to show him wearing a yarmulke and dancing with congregants.

Sohail remains detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, an infamous jail currently housing high-profile inmates like Luigi Mangione and Nicolás Maduro.

Many synagogues around the country have increased precautions amid rising tensions in the Middle East, which have only grown more fiery after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran in late February.

On Thursday, a man wielding a rifle crashed a car into a Michigan synagogue just outside of Detroit. None of the synagogue’s staff, teachers or 140 children inside were injured after security killed the driver, 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali. One security guard was knocked unconscious in the crash but suffered no life-threatening injuries.

Numerous reports indicated that Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, was mourning four family members killed in an Israeli airstrike in his home country earlier this month.

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