Bronx Man Charged With Federal Hate Crimes in Manhattan Synagogue Attack
Larry Montes faces federal charges following an August 14, 2026, incident at a Manhattan synagogue.
3 reports on this incident · first at Aug 18, 2026, 7:59 p.m. ET
Earlier reports
Aug 19, 2026, 1:25 a.m. ET
Bronx Man Charged With Federal Hate Crimes Following Manhattan Synagogue Attack
According to official court records from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York released on August 18, 2026, Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, New York, has been charged with federal hate crimes. The charges include two counts of committing hate crimes and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury. The matter is currently at the charging stage and remains undecided; the charges contained in the complaint are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
As alleged in the complaint, the charges stem from an incident on August 14, 2026, during a Friday night Shabbat service attended by approximately 375 people at Central Synagogue in Manhattan. Montes allegedly disrupted the service, damaged two ceremonial silver candlesticks with gold accents, punched a female congregant, and spat in the face of and headbutted a security guard.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald stated that the federal charges address a violent, hate-motivated attack during religious worship. Montes is currently in state custody and will be presented in Manhattan federal court at a later date.
Aug 18, 2026, 7:59 p.m. ETFirst report
Bronx Man Charged With Federal Hate Crimes For Manhattan Synagogue Attack
Federal authorities with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on August 18, 2026, that Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, New York, has been charged with federal hate crimes.
According to official records, Montes was charged with two counts of committing hate crimes and one count of destruction of religious property resulting in bodily injury. The charges stem from an August 14, 2026, incident during a Shabbat service attended by approximately 375 people at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, where Montes allegedly disrupted services, damaged ceremonial candlesticks, struck a worshipper, and assaulted a security guard. Montes is currently in state custody awaiting transfer to Manhattan federal court.
The case is at the charging stage, and the charges contained in the complaint are allegations. Montes is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The statutory maximum sentences are 10 years in prison for each hate crime count and 20 years in prison for the property damage count.
Was this report accurate and useful?
Sources
Revision history
- Version 119 Aug 2026, 05:25current
First published.
- Version 118 Aug 2026, 23:59current
First published.
- Version 119 Aug 2026, 06:00current
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.