FRENZY

New Details Paint Horrific Scene Inside Hanukkah Massacre

Son of rabbi who was hosting the lighting celebration was slashed in the forehead trying to stop the machete-wielding suspect.

The suspect in Saturday night’s Hanukkah party attack in upstate New York was surprised by the sudden appearance of the rabbi host’s son—a distraction that helped others fight back and chase the assailant out of the house, The Journal News reports. The son of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who has not been named, was reported to have been in the basement with his children, aged 1 and 2, when suspect Grafton Thomas allegedly barged into the house and allegedly starting wielding a large machete during the holiday celebration. He came up the stairs when he heard screaming and was immediately sliced across the the forehead, with Thomas allegedly striking him so hard that he fell back down the stairs and injured his back. But the distraction is what likely allowed others in the room to start pummeling Thomas with furniture and eventually chasing him from the home. The new details from inside the gruesome attack have come to light after Rabbi Shmuel Gancz of the Chabad of Suffern visited the hospital where two of the five injured are still recovering. Grancz told The Journal News that one of the reasons Thomas did not injure more people is because he had no real experience with the machete. Thomas, who has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary, is being held on $5 million bail.