In an unsettling incident on a chilly Wednesday night in New York City, a man was apprehended after repeatedly ramming his vehicle into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters. This revered Hasidic Jewish site was teeming with people engaged in prayer during the attack.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported when the driver struck the building’s door, reversed, and proceeded to ram it several more times. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned that the investigation was still in its early stages, and while the motives behind the driver’s actions remain unclear, authorities are treating the event as a potential hate crime.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed grave concern over the incident, describing the crash as “intentional.” He highlighted the deep significance and historical importance of the institution to many in New York and across the globe, underscoring the alarming nature of the event.

Footage of the incident circulating online captures the unsettling scene: a car, bearing New Jersey plates, navigating an icy driveway before repeatedly crashing into the basement-level doors of the complex. The driver, clad in shorts, exits the vehicle and is heard explaining to bystanders that “It slipped,” and offers a comment to the police about an attempt to park.

The driver, who is wearing shorts, emerges, shouts to bystanders that “It slipped” and says something to police about trying to park.

Chabad Lubavitch spokesperson Motti Seligson said some of the doors were damaged in the crash.

The Chabad Lubavitch headquarters and synagogue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood receives thousands of visitors annually. Its Gothic Revival facade is very recognizable to adherents of the Chabad movement and has inspired dozens of replicas across the world.

Commonly referred to as 770, a nod to the Eastern Parkway address of the complex’s original building, the headquarters encompasses multiple adjacent structures.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called the crash “disturbing and unacceptable.”

“This could have been much worse and I’m grateful that no one was hurt,” he said in a post on social platform X. “My office is working closely with the NYPD to ensure justice is done and the community is safe.”

Neither bombs nor any other weapons were found in the car that hit the building, according to Tisch. She said it was also too early in the investigation to comment on the driver’s mental state.

The incident happened on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Schneerson died in 1994 but remains a revered figure globally.

There has been a near constant police presence around 770 Eastern Parkway for years.

The site was at the epicenter of the Crown Heights riots in 1991, when Black residents of the neighborhood attacked Jews after a child was killed by a car traveling in Schneerson’s motorcade. In 2014, a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student, wounding him, before being shot dead by police.