Suspect in Hanukkah celebration stabbings arrested in New York City with 'blood all over him,' source says

He publicly commended the two officers, Russell Mattera and David Radziwon. "I have no doubt that their speedy efforts last night, keen work, saved lives," Shea said.

Ramapo officers picked Thomas up and transported him upstate, a NYPD spokeswoman said. Monsey is a hamlet within Ramapo.

Thomas, who is from Greenwood Lake, about a 40-minute drive northwest of Monsey, was arraigned Sunday on five counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree burglary, Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said.

Wearing a white jumpsuit, Thomas was led into the courtroom in handcuffs. He kept his eyes on the floor and said nothing audible during the proceeding, speaking only to his attorney. A group of Orthodox Jews watched the hearing from the gallery.

Thomas entered a not guilty plea. His next court appearance is Friday.

During arguments over bail, Rockland County Senior Assistant District Attorney Michael Dugandzic said Thomas had no ties to the community. The prosecutor also said one of the victims has a skull fracture and that when police stopped Thomas he had blood on his clothes and smelled strongly of bleach.

Public defender Kristine Ciganek argued her client had no criminal history and lived with his mother. He has been arrested twice, she said (Dugandzic said the defendant had been arrested earlier in the year for menacing and reckless endangerment, and the outcome of those charges was not immediately clear).

Judge Rhoda Schoenberger set bail at $5 million and said, if released, Thomas must forfeit any firearms he owns and stay away from the alleged victims and the rabbi's home.

Five people were taken to area hospitals after the suspect entered the Hanukkah celebration in the New York suburb and began stabbing people, according to police and witnesses.

The victims are Hasidic Jews, the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley Region said in a tweet. Two people are in critical condition, council co-founder Yossi Gestetner told CNN.

One of the victims is the son of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, at whose home the attack unfolded, and another victim suffered head wounds and is in serious condition, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The rabbi's son is recovering, he said.

The attacker pulled out a knife that was "almost like a broomstick," said Aron Kohn, who attended the Hanukkah celebration.

There were at least 100 people in the home at the time, as the rabbi was "lighting the candle" on the seventh night of Hanukkah, Kohn said.

The suspect tried to run into a nearby synagogue, but someone closed the doors, Kohn added.

At Thomas' Greenwood Lake home, his pastor and a family friend defended him late Sunday.

"Grafton is not a terrorist. ... He's not a violent person," said United Methodist Church Pastor Wendy Paige, who says she's known Thomas for the past 10 years.

Family friend Taleen Collins spoke glowingly about him.

"Grafton has always been a loving, loving man towards me. He calls me 'auntie' sometimes ... He's just a loving person. I've never seen anything violent."

"He is not a terrorist. He is a loving, loving man with a lot of creativity," Collins said, adding that, "he's a wonderful spirit."

Rockland County -- where Saturday's stabbing took place -- has the largest Jewish population per capita of any US county, according to New York state. About 90,000 residents, almost a third of the county's population, are Jewish, Weidel said.

This is the second stabbing in Monsey since November. An Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed several times November 20 while walking to synagogue, officials said. He was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery.

Saturday's stabbing is the 13th act of anti-Semitism in New York in the past three weeks, in addition to other hateful incidents targeting the black, Latino and LGBT communities, Cuomo said.

David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, a Jewish advocacy organization, said there are several possible explanations for the spate of anti-Semitic attacks.

"The legacy of the Holocaust is kind of fading. Survivors like my own mother and father are no longer here," Harris told CNN. "So, the impact of what anti-Semitism can become is largely unknown to many younger people."

Harris said "social media has become kind of a launching pad for every kind of conspiracy theory, every kind of anti-Semitic trope."

He said he believes there is "a growing lack of confidence in liberal democracy, in the kind of societies that we've built.

"Rather than coming together, we're fracturing and we're Balkanizing," Harris said.

The attacks are symptoms of "an American cancer that is spreading in the body politic," the governor said. He vowed to propose a law that would make New York the first state to treat these types of incidents as domestic terrorism.

"They're trying to inflict fear. They're motivated by hate. They are doing mass attacks," Cuomo said. "These are terrorists in our country perpetrating terrorism on other Americans, and that's how we should treat it and that's how I want the laws in this state to treat it."

He directed the state's Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate the incident. The Anti-Defamation League of New York traveled to the scene to learn more and coordinate with law enforcement, the group said.

Last week, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the NYPD would boost its patrols after at least eight possible anti-Semitic incidents in a week.

The mayor said Sunday authorities will immediately station more officers front of houses of worship and on the streets in Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights, three Brooklyn communities in which a disproportionate number of attacks have been concentrated.

"We have to give people a sense of security," he said.

The mayor also called for plans for more light towers and security cameras.

Next month, neighborhood safety coalitions that train residents to recognize signs of violence and intervene before it happens will be unveiled. Some schools will begin using a curriculum that includes the history and dangers of anti-Semitism, intended to foster mutual respect, he said.

"We have to reach our young people more effectively," de Blasio said. "This is the crux of so much of what we're seeing now -- young people who somehow have come to assume that bias is acceptable. We will not let that happen in New York City."

Meanwhile, Cuomo said he instructed New York State Police to increase patrols and security in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods statewide.

The ADL will work with leaders in Orthodox and Hasidic communities to improve their reporting mechanisms, said Evan Bernstein, the group's director for the New York and New Jersey region.

"There's a fear of reporting. There's a fear of retaliation, or they just don't have the understanding of how to report," he told CNN. "So what happens is in a place like here in Rockland County, you maybe will only show a few or handful of incidents that have taken place ... when in reality -- we believe, based in our conversations with Orthodox leadership -- there's far more of that happening."

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said it is "heart-wrenching to see the holiday of Hanukkah violated yet again" following last week's "hateful assaults."

"We are outraged because the answer is clear: the Jewish community NEEDS greater protection," Greenblatt tweeted, demanding more protection for Jewish communities and consequences for the perpetrators of the attacks. "Whether worshiping in synagogue, shopping in the supermarket or celebrating at home, Jews should be safe from violence."