Man indicted on charges of attempting to kill rabbi

[Ian David]

TOMS RIVER — A 37-year-old Lakewood man has been indicted on charges of attempting to murder an Orthodox rabbi in a baseball-bat attack last year.

An Ocean County grand jury on Tuesday afternoon handed up an indictment, made public Wednesday, charging Lee Tucker of Ventura Drive with attempting to murder Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz, 53, of Lakewood on Oct. 9.

The indictment also charges Tucker with possession of a weapon, a bat, for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of that weapon.

Moskowitz, a third-grade teacher at Lakewood Cheder School, was severely beaten while walking to synagogue to pray. The attack occurred just after dark at Princeton Avenue and Carey Street in Lakewood.

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In fact, Lakewood police first questioned Tucker in connection with the attack on Oct. 23, after picking him up from Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow upon his discharge from that facility. They did not say why he was there or for how long.

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