Suspect in custody after 5 stabbed at rabbi's home in New York, officials say

Officials have yet to announce a motive in Saturday's violence in the town of Monsey, but the incident comes in the wake of other attacks decried as anti-Semitic. Police in the nearby town of Ramapo said just after midnight that a man who fled the scene was in custody as investigations continue.

The victims, all Hasidic Jews, were taken to local hospitals, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council in Hudson Valley, which said the stabbings occurred at the home of Orthodox Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg just before 10 p.m. Yossi Gestetner, the Council's co-founder, said Rottenberg's son was among the victims.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was "horrified" by the "latest in a string of attacks against members of the Jewish community in New York this week." New York City leaders said Friday that police would increase their patrols in several neighborhoods in light of anti-Semitic violence, and earlier this month, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said suspects in a shooting at a kosher deli in Jersey City "held views that reflected hatred of the Jewish people, as well as the hatred of law enforcement." 

Cuomo said he is directing the state police's hate crimes task force to investigate the stabbing.

"Let me be clear: Anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate," he said in a statement.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day said law enforcement response was "immediate and effective." He called the attack a "heinous crime." 

"Getting such a horrific call in the midst of a local holiday celebration is a stark reminder that even in a community as good and serene as ours, evil can visit us," Day said in a statement. "Violence of any kind will not be tolerated here in Rockland."