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Since then, tension and anxiety among the area’s Orthodox community has only increased after a string of anti-Semitic attacks in the region, including a mass shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., that killed two Hasidic Jews, among others, as well as a string of anti-Semitic crimes in Brooklyn and the stabbing in Monsey.

The police investigating the November attack had obtained surveillance video that showed the vehicle that might have been involved. The video was not high-quality, Chief Weidel said, so detectives showed the footage to area auto-body shops, where workers said the car was a Honda Pilot.

A detective then discovered that a Honda Pilot had been in nearby Clarkstown about two and a half hours before the stabbing, according to Chief Weidel. That vehicle was registered to Mr. Thomas’s mother, Kim Kennedy, who told officers that her son had driven the car that night, Chief Weidel said.

Ms. Kennedy told the police that Mr. Thomas “likes to go driving around at night” and that it was not unusual for him to be driving around at 3 a.m., Chief Weidel said. Ms. Kennedy told reporters on Thursday that when she spoke with the police then, she was not aware they were investigating the November attack.

The police subsequently spoke with Mr. Thomas, Chief Weidel said. He told them that he had been in Clarkstown, about 30 miles from his home, because the car had “mechanical problems.”

When detectives examined the car, they found nothing to suggest that it had been on Howard Drive or that it had been involved in the attack, Chief Weidel said.

The police have since obtained a federal search warrant for the Honda Pilot, Chief Weidel said. It was in the authorities’ hands as of Thursday, and they were examining it for any evidence that might connect it to the November attack.