Man accused of ramming car into Brooklyn Chabad Headquarters skips court after 'altercation' at detention center

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Mar 13, 2026

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NEW YORK — Dan Sohail, the man facing federal charges for ramming his car into Chabad World Headquarters in Brooklyn, has refused to come to court three times in the last two weeks — ever since he got into an “altercation” with a fellow detainee, sources said.

Sohail, 36, was a no-show at a scheduled bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court Friday. Prosecutors and his attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, noted that this was the third time he hadn’t been able to make it to court since March 4, when he got into an “altercation with another inmate,” a source with knowledge of the case said.

It wasn’t immediately clear where that altercation took place, although Sohail is currently being held at Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn.

Attorneys didn’t elaborate what the fight was about. An email to the federal Bureau of Prisons and an email and call to Eisner-Grynberg were not immediately returned.

Sohail was not religious growing up, but had recently told his grandmother he wanted to convert to Judaism, his father previously told the Daily News.

Sohail’s March 4 bail hearing was initially rescheduled for earlier this week, but he refused to come to court, the source said. The bail hearing was then rescheduled to Friday, when he again refused to appear.

Sohail faces federal charges of intentionally defacing or damaging religious real property for the bizarre Jan. 28 incident. He was caught on camera slamming his Honda into the side entrance of the international headquarters of Chabad, the Hasidic Orthodox Jewish organization, on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, sending a crowd nearby scrambling. The charges carry a maximum three years behind bars.

Sohail was already facing state hate crime charges and was locked up on Rikers Island when he was hit with the federal charges. On Friday, Eisner-Grynberg told the judge that the state charges will be dismissed soon and she will ask for a bail hearing on the federal charges once that happens, the source said.

He’s expected to appear in court on the state charges on March 31, according to court records.

When Sohail was arraigned on federal hate crimes charges on March 2, his lawyer said the car-ramming suspect had hoped to return to Rikers Island, where he was already being held on state charges, so he could properly observe the Jewish holiday Purim. But he was instead sent to the notorious MDC Brooklyn because he’s formally in federal custody.

Federal prosecutors asked Magistrate Judge Clay Kaminsky to hold Sohail without bail, with the assistant U.S. attorney warning that, if he was set free, nothing would prevent Sohail “from getting into a car and going to any other synagogue or any other house of worship and repeating the conduct.”

The judge ordered Sohail held without bail, but noted that that he was inclined to eventually release Sohail whenever a bail hearing is held.

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—With John Annese

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