A man was taken into custody Wednesday after repeatedly ramming a vehicle into an entrance of Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.

Footage recorded by bystanders shows the driver steering his vehicle into an entrance at the bottom of a ramp, reversing, and then accelerating into the same doorway at least two additional times. After exiting the vehicle, the driver can be heard claiming that his vehicle had “slipped,” though the footage appears to show deliberate acceleration into the structure.

New York Police Department officers responded within moments and placed the man in custody. Authorities also called in the NYPD Bomb Squad to examine the suspect’s vehicle out of an abundance of caution.

No injuries were reported in the incident. The extent of the damage to the building was not immediately clear.

The motive for the apparent attack has not been disclosed, and police have not said whether the incident is being investigated as a hate crime, a targeted attack on a religious institution, or a non-ideological act.

However, highly credible sources tell YWN that the suspect had arrived at a yeshiva in Carteret, NJ, yesterday claiming he wanted to convert to Judaism. Sources say he was not taken seriously and was “upset” by the response, prompting his deranged rampage tonight.

YWN notes that the incident occurred on one of the busiest nights and most important days of the Chabad Calender: The Yartzheit of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Harav Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, zt”l, and the 75th anniversary of the day that the Rebbe zt’l took on leadership. It is nothing short of a miracle that no one was injured.

Additional information will be released as the investigation develops.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)