A 32-year-old Brooklyn woman was arraigned Sunday, October 25, on hate crime charges accusing her of attacking two Jewish men within minutes of each other in Midtown Manhattan. Anna Mochalova of Brighton Beach did not immediately enter a plea, Fox 5 New York reported.
Prosecutors say the attacks happened on the evening of Wednesday, October 21, in and near the Diamond District, a stretch of West 47th Street with many Jewish-owned businesses. The allegations have not been proven in court.
What prosecutors allege
According to the criminal complaint as described by Fox 5, a 26-year-old man in traditional Hasidic clothing was followed and cornered against a vehicle outside 15 West 47th Street shortly before 6 p.m. Prosecutors allege he was stabbed in the lower back with a sharp object suspected to be a syringe. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
About five minutes later, near Sixth Avenue and West 45th Street, a second man was pushed from behind and suffered a bleeding cut to his right forearm, prosecutors say. Court documents cited by CBS New York say the attacker threatened one of the men, telling him, "Go away from here. I have a gun. I'm going to kill you." Prosecutors allege both men were targeted because they are Jewish.
International Business Times, which reviewed the complaint, reported that it does not establish that she had a gun. It also does not identify a specific object or show that either man was injected with anything. A third man told police a woman asked whether he was Jewish, and when he said he was Muslim, she apologized and walked away, CBS New York reported.
The charges and the bail fight
Mochalova faces two counts of assault as a hate crime, a count of menacing as a hate crime, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of aggravated harassment based on race or religion, according to Fox 5. Prosecutors asked for $100,000 cash or a $300,000 bond. The judge set bail at $50,000 cash or a $150,000 bond. Her next court date is Thursday, October 29.
Her lawyer, Lila Carpenter of the Legal Aid Society, questioned the police identification in court on Sunday, IBTimes reported. Prosecutors say an NYPD transit officer recognized Mochalova from surveillance stills based on earlier interactions with her. In cases built on video, how a defendant was identified is often one of the first things the defense tests.
In New York, a hate crime charge rides on top of an underlying offense, such as assault. Prosecutors must prove the underlying crime and also that the victim was chosen because of a protected trait such as religion. If they do, the potential sentence goes up.
A street on edge
Business owners in the Diamond District told CBS New York they were shaken. "It could have happened to myself," one business owner said. A store owner who asked not to be identified said he feared "she'll just be out in a few days" and that no one knew what she would do next.
The case comes in a year of rising numbers. NYPD data cited by IBTimes show 463 confirmed hate crimes in the city from January through September 2026, up 12.9% from 410 a year earlier. Anti-Jewish incidents made up 245 of them, more than half.
Rabbi Uriel Romano warned on Episode 74 that antisemitism keeps changing its shape to fit the moment, a conversation we covered in our story on his interview. A contested identification, a hate crime charge and a fight over bail make this the kind of case Daniel Rosenberg, Michael Dye and Lloyd Golburgh take apart on the show.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
