NYPD opens hate crime investigation after car rams into Chabad headquarters building

A driver rammed a car repeatedly into the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters building in Brooklyn, New York, Wednesday, prompting a hate crime investigation and additional security at places of worship throughout the city, officials said.

The driver was quickly arrested and there were no reported injuries, New York Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.

Shortly before 9 p.m., a grey Honda sedan entered the driveway of the Hasidic Jewish site in the Crown Heights neighborhood, crashed into the doorway, backed up and crashed into it again several times, a law enforcement official told CNN.

There is a fixed police post assigned to the building, and officers there took the driver into custody.

The driver, who has not been identified, has been cooperating with police and told officers it was not an attack, the official said.

CNN has reached out to Chabad Lubavitch for more information.

The NYPD bomb squad did a sweep of the vehicle and no explosive devices were found, Tisch said. She added that she wasn’t aware of any weapons recovered at the scene.

“I am relieved that no one was injured in this horrifying incident. This is deeply alarming especially given the deep meaning and history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the news conference.

“Any threat to a Jewish institution or place of worship must be taken seriously,” Mamdani added. “Antisemitism has no place in our city.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was also at the news conference, said her office will be working with NYPD to investigate the incident.

Police mobilized additional crowd control as members of the Chabad community gathered on the scene, and have enhanced security at places of worship across all five boroughs, Tisch said.