A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Anna Mochalova on two hate crime counts over the alleged stabbings of two visibly Jewish men in Manhattan on Oct. 21, The Times of Israel reports.
Investigators believe the two men were stabbed with a needle in separate attacks the same day, though the weapon has not been recovered and it is unclear whether anything was inside it. Each count, one for each victim, charges her with willfully causing bodily injury because of the victim's race, color, religion or national origin, and each carries up to 10 years in prison.
Mochalova, a Brooklyn resident in her 30s, was picked up on a transit violation in Brooklyn and then connected to the attacks. She was already facing local hate crime and other charges, to which she pleaded not guilty, and she is being held in detention. Her federal arraignment is set for Tuesday.
The Manhattan Shomrim Safety Patrol and the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force had asked the public for help after the first attack, near 47th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Diamond District.
The case lands as new NYPD figures show Jews were the targets of 58% of all hate crimes in New York City in October, 26 of 45 incidents, though they make up about 12% of the city's population.
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