His qualifiers for a hate crime.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — More than a month before he charged into Hanukkah celebrations with a machete, prosecutors say, Grafton Thomas used his cellphone to search the Internet: “Why did Hitler hate the Jews.”
That query — entered three more times over the following weeks — was just one red flag authorities found when they combed Thomas’s belongings, officials said. There were more online searches, for temples “near me.” There were journals with the words “Nazi Culture” on the same page as a Swastika and a Star of David.
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