A Brooklyn man accused of stabbing a Jewish man just centimeters from his heart after boasting that he wanted to “kill a Jew” was arrested Monday following a nearly week-long manhunt.

Armani Charles, 23, was taken into custody on hate crime charges for the attack on 35-year-old Elias Rosner outside a Lubavitch shul in Crown Heights. The stabbing occurred on the third day of Chanukah.

Rosner told authorities and later recounted publicly that moments before the attack, Charles was pacing near a crowd of Jewish men, brandishing a knife and spewing antisemitic slurs. According to Rosner, the suspect repeatedly declared his intent to kill Jews, shouting, “I’m going to kill a Jew today,” and invoking the Holocaust in a chilling rant.

“I was waiting in a crowd of Jewish people and this guy started spouting stuff,” Rosner said. Believing in “standing up to bullies,” Rosner said he made eye contact with the suspect—at which point Charles allegedly lunged, stabbing him once in the chest at the corner of Kingston Avenue and Lincoln Place.

The blade narrowly missed Rosner’s heart.

Trained in martial arts, Rosner said he managed to blunt the force of the knife with his sweater, which he wrapped and used to absorb the impact.

“I was able to catch most of the force of the blade with the sweater and that’s basically what saved my life,” he said.

Despite bleeding heavily, Rosner chased his attacker down the street for another block before collapsing. He was transported to Kings County Hospital, treated for his injuries, and released the following day.

Charles was charged with attempted assault, assault, aggravated harassment, and menacing—each classified as a hate crime, according to police.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the NYPD deployed dozens of additional officers to Crown Heights.

This year, approximately 305 of the 550 hate crimes reported citywide targeted Jewish residents or property. Last year, 334 of 646 bias incidents were classified as antisemitic.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)