Police put up crime scene tape as members of the Hasidic Jewish community gather outside of the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters, where a man was arrested Wednesday evening after repeatedly crashing his car into a door of the building on Jan. 29, 2026, in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short July 30, 2026 at 10:57am
A man who repeatedly rammed his vehicle into a Jewish movement’s headquarters has received a shockingly lenient sentence — and will be free in about a week after time served.
The Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in New York City was the target of 36-year-old Dan Sohail when he drove his car into the side-entrance door in January. Fox News reported he was charged with intentionally damaging religious property, to which he pleaded guilty in May.
On Jan. 28, Sohail removed barriers and motioned for congregants to move away as he drove his car into the headquarters’ doors five times. Court House News said no injuries took place, but the doors were ripped off their hinges, and the front bumper of his 2012 Honda Accord was damaged.
Footage of the incident and the arrest was posted to social media platform X.
IDENTIFIED: Dan Sohail of Carteret, NJ was arrested last night after allegedly ramming a vehicle into Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights. pic.twitter.com/Rkp8ONogHu
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) January 29, 2026
His defense attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, told Judge Eric Vitaliano that her client dealt with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She tried framing his actions as coming from someone who “desperately sought belonging and understanding through his exploration of Judaism.”
Prosecutors sought 14 months behind bars, but he was sentenced to six months, along with agreeing to pay the organization $20,000 in restitution.
Multiple sources said the prosecution was motivated by wanting to deter anti-Semitic hate crimes. Vitaliano said such crimes are a “stain on the soul of this city.”
“We’re living in a terrible time of crime against Jewish people, Jewish institutions, motivated by hate or animus,” he said. “That’s what converts the property crime into something more.”
However, the judge wouldn’t frame this instance as one. “It asks the court to sentence based on the general misunderstanding of the public,” he said.
“A property crime is what was charged here. Not a hate crime.”
There were hate crime charges that were later dropped.
Court House News said Sohail’s mother is Roman Catholic and his father is Muslim. He was apparently in the process of converting to Judaism, hence his attorney’s remark.
“It is impossible to square what he did with what he believes,” Eisner-Grynberg concluded.
From the above footage, it’s clear someone could have been seriously injured or killed.
Even if we remove the possibility of a hate crime, an unwell man driving a car like this into a building warranted more than Sohail’s sentence.
The ambiguity of motives combined with his dangerous, reckless behavior serves as more proof that an asylum system is needed in this country.
Sohail is required in his sentencing to receive mental health care, but he will be a free man soon enough.
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Sam Short is an Assistant Professor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
