Israeli man recounts harrowing recovery from stabbing incident in Crown Heights

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (PIX11) — An Israeli man is recovering and speaking out after a harrowing and hate-filled attack in Crown Heights last weekend.

Police said he was stabbed as the suspect yelled, “Free Palestine!”

The vicious stabbing was caught on surveillance video, but the victim says what you can’t hear cut deep, too.

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The suspect allegedly shouted, “Free Palestine… you want to die today?”

Michel Dobruskin was just released from the hospital after doctors said he narrowly escaped death.

“The guy wanted to kill me. He wanted to murder me,” Dobruskin said.

He was stabbed in the chest on Aug. 10 in what prosecutors said was a hate-motivated crime. The man you see on video charging at the Jewish men on Kingston Avenue has been identified by police as 22-year-old Vincent Sumpter. Sumpter has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime.

“After Oct. 7, you see what’s going on in Manhattan. ‘From the river to the sea,’ he said, referring to an antisemitic refrain often chanted by protestors. “Where are the Jewish people going to be?” Dobruskin asked.

According to the NYPD, antisemitic crimes are up 19% this year, with 330 complaints logged as of June.

“It’s happening every day on the subway, in the city, everywhere,” Dobruskin told PIX11 News.

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Violent acts of hate are not new to the city or this family. Exactly five years ago, Dobruskin’s uncle was attacked. Rabbi Abraham Gopin was bashed over the head with a paving stone.

The family, devout Jews from Israel, is undeterred from returning to the city, though it gives them pause. “I am scared,” Dobruskin said. “Now it’s a very bad place for Jewish people.”

Prosecutors have effectively bumped up Sumpter’s charges by adding the hate crime statute, meaning he faces a minimum of 15 to 25 years in prison if convicted. He is currently on Rikers Island on $250,000 bail.

Friends have started a fundraiser for the victim and his family to pay for medical bills and costs associated with the incident.

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