Man sentenced to six months for crashing car into Brooklyn Chabad headquarters

In a Brooklyn federal courtroom, Judge Eric N. Vitaliano imposed a six-month-and-one-week prison term on Dan Sohail for deliberately driving his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters on Eastern Parkway. The incident, which involved the vehicle striking the building’s side entrance five times and damaging the door, caused no injuries despite the site being busy at the time. Prosecutors sought a harsher penalty to send a deterrent message amid a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes, but the judge emphasized Sohail’s psychiatric issues and the mistaken perception that the attack was a hate crime.

Sohail, a New Jersey resident, had already served six months in detention and will be released shortly after paying $20,000 restitution. His lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, said the crash was an irrational cry for help linked to the defendant’s depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after a troubled childhood and a brief period of involvement with the Chabad community.