The suspect behind the July 1 stabbing of a Chabad rabbi in Brighton, Massachusetts was allegedly violent and antisemitic toward his college roommates.
Khaled Awad, 24, was arrested on July 1 shortly after Rabbi Shlomo Noginski was stabbed eight times in the arm. Awad had allegedly pulled a gun on Noginski and told him to get in a car before stabbing him as he tried to escape.
One of Awad’s former college roommates at the University of Southern Florida told CBS Boston that Awad “was very much antisemitic. He would say like all types of Jewish jokes. I thought he was joking at first and then I started to see seriousness in his comments.” Another former roommate told CBS Boston that Awad “started becoming violent,” prompting the roommate to move elsewhere and file a restraining order against Awad.
Additionally, a spokesperson for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Fox News that Awad, an Egyptian citizen, had overstayed his student visa, pointing out that Awad had initially entered the United States in August 2019. “However, he failed to stay enrolled as required by law, resulting in a loss of legal status in the U.S on May 14, 2021.”
Awad had pleaded not guilty to the stabbing and is currently being held without bail; his dangerousness hearing—where the prosecutor will argue that the defendant should be held without bail for 180 days—is scheduled for July 8.
Noginski has been released from the hospital. He told Lubavitch.com, “I am grateful to the Boston Police Department for their rapid response, and relieved that the perpetrator is in custody. I am looking forward to returning to my work as soon as possible.”
Rabbi Dan Rodkin, who heads the Shalom House Jewish Day School where Noginski works, said during a July 2 vigil, “We, Boston, are not going to sit back. We will fight back. We will bring goodness to the world. We’ll make sure that we will become better people and we will send a strong message: that evil has no place in America.”
