A man who terrorized the Lakewood community in a string of violent attacks two years ago pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal hate crimes and a carjacking.

Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the state of New Jersey announced that Dion Marsh, 29, pleaded guilty on charges of attempting to murder four Orthodox Jews and injuring one other in and around Lakewood, New Jersey. The incidents unfolded on an afternoon in April 2022, when Marsh, from nearby Manchester, deliberately rammed a vehicle into four identifiably Orthodox Jews. In two of those incidents, he used a car he stole from another Orthodox man, whom he had assaulted and injured earlier that afternoon. In one instance, he got out of the car after ramming it into a victim and stabbed the man in the chest.

According to reports at the time, the stabbing victim was in serious condition, but there were no reported fatalities.

Marsh faced five hate crime charges and one carjacking charge.

U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said, “This defendant violently attacked five men, driving a car into four of them, stabbing one of them in the chest, and attempting to kill them, simply because they were visibly identifiable as Orthodox Jews.”

A close friend of Marsh, Ryan Zimmerman, told Shtetl that Marsh was under the heavy influence of drugs at the time, and was not motivated by antisemitism.

“I know the real Dion,” Zimmerman said, and he was “a loving, caring man, that would take the shirt off his back for you.” 

“He deserves a chance to prove himself sober,” Zimmerman added.

Marsh faces life in prison for these crimes, and he will be sentenced on June 11th.