Grafton Thomas Had 20 Previous Encounters With Police Prior To Monsey Attack

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Grafton Thomas (37), the alleged attacker at a Monsey Hanukkah party last month, had more than 20 previous encounters with police in his native town of Greenwood Lake for incidents ranging from an alleged rape, assault and a marijuana bust, according to a New York Post report.

Documents obtained from the Greenwood Lake Police department revealed more than 20 previous police run-ins with Grafton Thomas over the past two decades.

In 2002, Thomas was arrested for smoking marijuana with two other teenagers near Greenwood Lake and in 2009 he was arrested again for allegedly attacking a man near his car on a state highway while the victim’s son watched from the back seat.

In 2005 a 19-year-old woman claimed that Thomas had tried to rape her on a street where he lived at the time, but he was not arrested or charged in this incident.

In the years leading up to his alleged attack at the  Hanukkah party, police records show several phone contacts with Thomas which were typical of a mentally ill loner.

In 2015, police assisted a “Mobile Mental Health” unit in getting Thomas from his house to a hospital for evaluation.

In 2017, police were dispatched to the Village Buzz Cafe on Windermere Avenue after someone called cops to report Grafton was acting suspicious and looking in cars parked at the restaurant. Police responded but did not arrest him, the report says.

In 2018, a woman called police because Thomas banged “violently on her door” and asked her if he could take items from her trash.

The police report also mentioned a number of car crashes Thomas was involved in and several traffic stops. Another report notes he once brought a stray dog that he found on Windermere Avenue to the police department, who found the dog’s owner.

After a November attack in Monsey in which a rabbi was stabbed and seriously injured, police questioned Thomas since the car used in the attack was a Honda Pilot and Thomas’s mother’s Honda Pilot had been seen in a nearby town two and a half hours prior to the attack. Police have not confirmed yet whether Thomas was involved in the previous attack.

Thomas faces five counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill for allegedly hacking five Orthodox Jews with an 18-inch machete a the December 28th Hanukkah party, as well as state charges for attempted murder.