Funeral Service Held For Man Killed In Racially Motivated Attack

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Mourners and politicians gathered at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens Saturday to remember a black man who was stabbed to death by a sword wielding alleged white supremacist in Midtown last month.

Saturday's funeral -- with Mayor Bill de Blasio among the attendees -- took place almost two weeks after Timothy Caughman's fatal encounter with a Baltimore man who prosecutors say came to New York to kill a black person.

The 66-year-old Caughman was at 9th Avenue and W. 36th Street when James Harris Jackson allegedly picked him out at random and drove a small sword through him.

Caughman was able to stagger to a nearby police stationhouse before succumbing to his injuries.

Jackson surrendered after seeing himself on the news following the attack. He walked into the Times Square police substation, telling officers, "I'm the person that you're looking for." He's charged with first degree murder as an act of terrorism and second degree murder as a hate crime.

His lawyer has said if the allegations hold up, he will need to address "obvious psychological issues."

Speaking from the pulpit Saturday, Mayor de Blasio said eight and a half million New Yorkers were assaulted on the day Caughman was brutally slain.

"Don't think for a moment it was an attack on one stray man," the mayor said. "It was an attack on all of us."

According to Caughman's Twitter page, he was an autograph collector and a music and movie lover who tweeted regularly about John Lennon and Chuck Berry.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)