Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

‘I Will Kill Jews’ Attacker Shot Dead by Police at Chabad Headquarters in Brooklyn

A knife-wielding man shouting ‘I will kill the Jew’ was shot and killed by police after he allegedly stabbed an Israeli rabbinic student inside the world headquarters of Chabad in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Calvin Peters, 51, was shot in the stomach by police after a confrontation inside 770 Eastern Parkway, where he set upon a 22-year-old student as he prayed around 1:45 am.

Peters was taken to Kings County Hospital where he died of his wounds

The rabbinic student, Levi Rosenviat, 22, of Beitar Illit in Gush Etzion, was lightly injured and is expected to recover.

The confrontation started when Peters entered the imposing building after midnight saying he was looking for a book, witnesses said. A Chabad spokesman told Israeli media that homeless men sometimes enter the world headquarters, which is open 24 hours a day, in order to get warm.

He later pulled out a knife and started ranting: “I will kill the Jew! I want to kill the Jew!” the Daily News reported.

Police and security guards reportedly flooded the building moments after the attack. Peters initially put down his knife, but then picked it back up again. Police ordered Peters to drop the knife and then shot him when he did not comply.

Police reportedly are calling the incident criminal, not terror-related, though with elements of a hate crime.

Rosenviat, who was listed in stable condition, arrived in New York two weeks ago, according to the Daily News.

A Chabad spokesman in Israel told Army Radio that the attack wasn’t terror-related or premeditated. “Incidents like these happen in Brooklyn every 15 minutes,” he said.

With JTA

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.