CROWN HEIGHTS — A man arrested for stabbing a Jewish man on Empire Boulevard last month — originally investigated as a possible bias incident — will not be charged with a hate crime, prosecutors said.
Police arrested 26-year-old Keny Rochelin last week after he stabbed two different men walking in Prospect Park. Upon investigation, police connected Rochelin to the Feb. 10 slashing of a 25-year-old Jewish man as he walked along Empire Boulevard near Albany Avenue in Crown Heights.
At the time, the NYPD looked into that incident as a possible hate crime because the victim was wearing “Hasidic garb,” said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
But Rochelin will not be charged with a hate crime, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said, instead facing two counts of assault in regards to the Empire Boulevard attack and one of the stabbings in the park and one count of attempted assault.
A law enforcement source said he wouldn’t be charged with a hate crime because there was no evidence that the attacked was motivated by bias. A law enforcement source added that Rochelin is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
As of Wednesday, Rochelin had not yet been formally arraigned on the charges.
Rochelin was spotted on surveillance footage fleeing the February stabbing, sources said. (NYPD)
