A man arrested for attacking multiple people during Shabbat service at Midtown’s Central synagogue is now facing federal hate-crime charges, officials said Tuesday.
Larry Montes, 46, was charged with two counts of committing hate crimes and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury for Friday’s attack, according to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.
Montes called congregants at Central Synagogue “swine,” referred to himself as God, and screamed an anti-Black slur at a security guard before attacking two people at the temple, cops said.
The suspect was sitting with the congregation at the Lexington Ave. synagogue near E. 55th St. during the Sabbath service when he suddenly sprang up from his seat and stormed up the central aisle to the front of the synagogue about 6:10 p.m. toward the bimah, or raised platform where rabbis read the Torah.
A video posted on X.com shows the congregation reacting in shock as he pumps his fist and rants, “Do you know who I am?”
Two women performing a song flee to safety as Montes reaches the bimah, spins around and marches back down the aisle, this time escorted from behind by a security guard.
Montes grabbed and threw two $10,000 candleholders to the ground, breaking them, and screamed at the congregation, according to prosecutors.
Montes lives in Mott Haven in the Bronx.
He allegedly struck a 63-year-old woman’s face, splitting her lip and sending her crashing to the ground, then yelled, “f–k you, n—-r!” at a 65-year-old Black security guard before spitting in the man’s face and headbutting him, prosecutors said.
Montes then tried to flee but security staff, an NYPD officer working a detail at the synagogue, and congregants stopped and restrained him, prosecutors said.
Montes has two past misdemeanor convictions in New York — one from when he stole headphones from Best Buy and brandished a knife when security tried to stop him in 2024, the other from when he stole deodorant from a CVS store and punched a worker there several times in the head.