The Brooklyn Supreme Court has convicted a man of strangulation and assault as a hate crime for his 2018 attack on a rabbi in the neighborhood of East Flatbush, New York Daily News reported.
James Vincent, 44, was found guilty on Wednesday of randomly attacking Rabbi Menachem Moskowitz, 52, and shouting anti-Semitic slurs as he tried to strangle the victim.
The assault took place after Moskowitz, a father-of-nine, left the synagogue and gave a friendly wave to Vincent on April 21, 2018. When they passed each other, Vincent yelled at the Jewish man, “You f––king Jew, you Jews took my house and mortgage.”
Vincent then ran up behind Moskowitz and began choking and punching the rabbi. Moskowitz suffered a black eye and fractured ribs before a few bystanders stopped the attack.
Vincent ran from the scene of the crime but was arrested six days later. Police officers managed to identify him from surveillance video footage that showed Vincent using a credit card to buy ice cream before the assault, according to New York Daily News.
The victim told the publication days after the attack, “He said, ‘You f—ing Jews! You stole my money! I gotta kill you!’”
Vincent will be sentenced on Dec. 13 and could face up to 15 years in prison.