By Holly Yan and Ed Payne
(CNN) — A man stabbed a student at a Brooklyn synagogue early Tuesday morning before he was fatally shot by an officer he lunged at, police said.
The man walked into the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters around 1 a.m., where students had been up late studying.
The victim, an Israeli named Levi Rosenblatt, was stabbed in the neck but his injuries aren’t life threatening, Chabad Lubavitch said.
The attacker is believed to be homeless, CNN affiliate WABC said. It’s not clear why he stabbed the 23-year-old student.
“Most likely it is not a hate crime,” said Mony Ender, the deputy spokesman for Chabad Lubavitch in lsrael. “The assailant was not (running) amok. He stabbed one person, with an ordinary kitchen knife, although he could have attacked many more people who were there.”
Moments after the stabbing, an officer arrived, and a brief standoff ensued.
A cell phone video that captured the scene showed the officer repeatedly asking the attacker to drop the knife.
He obliged, only to pick it up again.
He then lunged at the officer who shot him in the upper body, New York police said.
CNN’s Tina Burnside in Atlanta and Amir Tal in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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