(CNN) As their night tour began, the two young New York City police officers pulled their SUV in front of the car driven by a man suspected of stabbing several people at a Hanukkah celebration. They blocked his path at an intersection in Harlem.

Russell Mattera and David Radziwon drew their guns and calmly walked to the car. With his hands raised, Grafton Thomas stepped out and the officers handcuffed him after midnight Sunday. Thomas had blood on his clothes and smelled of bleach, a prosecutor said.

The NYPD on Sunday released a brief surveillance video showing the moment police arrested Thomas in Harlem, about 28 miles from where police and witnesses said he entered a rabbi's home in Rockland County and began stabbing people late Saturday.

The stabbing victims were Hasidic Jews, the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley Region said in a tweet.

A license plate reader had captured Thomas' tag as he drove across the George Washington Bridge around 11:45 p.m. Saturday, about an hour after the attack, police said.

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