Suspect Promised "Blood bath" in Antisemitic Attack Targeting Lakewood

 New details about the Lakewood/Jackson terror  attack according to police documents obtained by NJ Advance Media

- told family, “it’s going to be a blood bath” and called Jews “the real devils,”

-Marsh said he was outside a Lakewood church around 1 p.m. Friday and looking for a ride home when he tried to get in “multiple vehicles,” according to the document. He carjacked the Toyota driver and went home

- Concerned citizen contacted a Lakewood police officer to say they recognized the suspect from security video of the carjacking, 

NJ- The man accused of a multi-hour antisemitic crime spree in Ocean County allegedly told family, “it’s going to be a blood bath” and called Jews “the real devils,” according to police documents obtained by NJ Advance Media.

Authorities charged 27-year-old Dion Marsh with multiple offenses, including attempted murder and bias intimidation for the Friday violence that included stabbing an Orthodox Jewish man in the chest, a carjacking and hitting pedestrians with a car Lakewood and Jackson, officials said.

Documents publicized released Tuesday detailed how Ocean County investigators said they tracked Marsh, of Manchester, and how an alert good Samaritan’s tip to a Lakewood police officer helped detectives identify the accused assailant the same day of the attacks.

The first crime occurred shortly after 1 p.m. near Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and Pine Street, where the attacker forced a motorist out of his vehicle and assaulted the driver before fleeing in the Toyota Camry, according to authorities. Lakewood detectives also gathered video surveillance showing the suspect trying to carjack two other vehicles, court documents show.

Shortly after 6 p.m., a person was hit by a vehicle near Carlton and Central avenues in Lakewood, authorities said. Also around the same time, police received a call from a father who said someone tried to pull his son into a vehicle. Prosecutors have not charged Marsh in that case.

The violence continued when Marsh allegedly stabbed a man in the chest near Pine Circle Drive and Lakewood-New Egypt Road and fled just before 7 p.m., according to authorities.

Around 8:20 p.m., another pedestrian was run down in Jackson and police discovered the same Toyota carjacked earlier in Lakewood was used in the attack, court documents stated.

A break in the fast-moving investigation came when an anonymous, concerned citizen contacted a Lakewood police officer to say they recognized the suspect from security video of the carjacking, a township police detective wrote in court papers.

A family member of Marsh also told detectives that the accused attacker had recently broken up with his girlfriend and said, “it’s going to be a blood bath,” according to the document.

Detectives with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office then obtained a warrant to track Marsh’s cell phone, an investigator wrote.

When Manchester police arrived at Marsh’s residence, they found him lying on a bed holding “what appeared to be a machete on his chest,” around 10:45 p.m. Friday night, according to the document. They arrested him a short time later.

Marsh’s hate-filled comments came during a recorded interview with detectives, according to the documents. During the interview, he admitted to the carjacking, stabbing and hitting pedestrians, the detective wrote.

“Dion Marsh advised when asked why he did all the acts he committed, he stated ‘it had to be done’ that ‘these are the real devils,” and when asked to whom he was referring, “’the Hasidic Jews,’” the detective’s account said.

Lakewood is home to a majority Orthodox Jewish community, as well as a smaller Hasidic, or Hasidim, community.

Marsh said he was outside a Lakewood church around 1 p.m. Friday and looking for a ride home when he tried to get in “multiple vehicles,” according to the document. He carjacked the Toyota driver and went home.

“Marsh then admitted that he used his grandmother’s vehicle, a maroon Honda…and traveled back to the [Lakewood-area],” the detective wrote.

Elected officials, Orthodox Jewish community leaders, the Anti-Defamation League and other officials have condemned the attacks.

Read more at

 https://www.nj.com/ocean/2022/04/man-promised-blood-bath-in-antsemetic-attacks-targeting-lakewood-orthodox-jews-cops-say.html