{"id":1009467,"date":"2026-08-18T21:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1009467\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T21:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:55:16","slug":"suspect-in-nyc-synagogue-violent-disturbance-hit-with-federal-hate-crime-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1009467\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in NYC synagogue violent disturbance hit with federal hate crime charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Montes, the man accused of creating a violent disturbance inside a New York City synagogue<\/a> late last week, was hit with federal charges on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Montes, a 46-year-old who lives in the Bronx, had already been facing charges in New York for alleged hate crimes and religious-based assaults stemming from an incident during a Shabbat service at Central Synagogue in Midtown, Manhattan<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"630-devlin-image.jpg<\/p>\n

Larry Montes, wearing a purple shirt, is escorted from Central Synagogue following an alleged violent disruption on Aug. 14, 2026, in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

CBS News New York<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice on Tuesday added multiple federal hate crimes charges, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

“These charges serve as notice that the Department of Justice will intervene to protect the public in the face of antisemitic and racially motivated attacks,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “The Civil Rights Division stands ready to combat assaults against worshippers and houses of worship. Americans’ fundamental right to worship without fear of bias-motivated violence is sacrosanct and must be protected at all costs.”<\/p>\n

One Central Synagogue congregant told CBS News New York on Tuesday that the new federal charges are necessary to root out hate.<\/p>\n

“The government is doing what they can to try to suppress hate,” Edward Kent said. “We do not want hate in America. America should not have hate. We’re a land of the free for everybody, and we have to learn to respect everybody’s religion.”<\/p>\n

Montes made his first appearance in court on Saturday night, during which the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office released transcripts providing new details<\/a> about Friday’s incident.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Montes rushed toward the rabbi, claiming he was “God,” vandalized property, called the estimated 375 worshippers in attendance “fake Jews,” and struck a 63-year-old woman in the face, knocking her to the ground. They also say Montes headbutted and spit on a Black security guard working to remove him, calling him a racial slur in the process.<\/p>\n

The prosecution added that in a post-Mirandized statement after being removed from the synagogue, Montes allegedly admitted to the crime and said it was religiously motivated, adding he had a strong animus towards Jewish and Black people.<\/p>\n

The DOJ said Tuesday that Montes said, in part, “I will never affiliate with no filthy [expletive] synagogues, either here or in [expletive] Israel.” Federal prosecutors said Montes also stated that “it’s all a racial thing” and that it was “all religious motivated.”<\/p>\n

During his appearance in court on Saturday, the judge granted Montes, who has two prior misdemeanors, bail. His next appearance before a state judge is set for Thursday.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Montes, the man accused of creating a violent disturbance inside a New York City synagogue late last…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1009468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,39476,5249,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,30293,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1009467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-hate-crime","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-department-of-justice","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1009468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}