Police Say NJ Shooting Was Hate Crime

 

 

On December 10, 2019, 6 people were left dead in what authorities are calling a hate crime at a Kosher store in Jersey City, NJ.   A day later, the shooters, both of whom were killed by police during the siege, were identified as David N. Anderson, 47, and his girlfriend Francine Graham, 50.  Anderson and Graham were suspects in the murder of an Uber driver in Bayonne the weekend prior to the attack.  Authorities say Anderson had made posts on social media that were anti-police and anti-Semitic. They also reveal a prior connection with the Black Hebrew Israelites, a group which has no connection to mainstream Judaism but has been reported to be anti-Semitic.

The first victim was Police Detective Joseph Seals, 39, a 15-year law enforcement veteran and a father of five.  Detective Seals was meeting an informant when he encountered the two shooters at the Bayview Cemetery.  Authorities believe that he approached the suspects, who were in a stolen U-Haul van that was related to the murder of the Uber driver the previous weekend.  Seals was shot and killed.  The suspects then fled in the stolen van and drove about one mile to the grocery store and opened fire upon exiting the vehicle.

Once inside the store, they fatally shot the owner, a worker, and a customer.  Two other customers were able to escape.  In the ensuing shootout, the assailants exchanged gunfire with the police for over an hour until being shot and killed.  A BearCat vehicle rammed through the storefront 4 hours after the incident began- ending the siege.  Two officers, one male and one female, were wounded in the shootout and were released from the hospital the same day.  A wounded man escaped out the back door of the store. He was also treated and released the same day.

The victims of the shooting were identified as Leah Minda Ferencz, 33, a member of the Hasidic community and a mother of three who co-owned the store with her husband; Moshe Deutsch, 24, a Hasidic male customer in the store and Miguel Douglas Rodriguez, 49, who worked in the Kosher grocery store but was not Jewish.  Police say the suspects targeted the store in what they believe was a premeditated antisemitic hate crime.  The stolen van the suspects were driving was later found to contain a live pipe bomb.  Media outlets have reported that a handwritten note, which authorities call “manifesto-style’, was found inside the van.  It said “I do this because my creator makes me do this and I hate who he hates.”

Authorities say Anderson had viewed anti-Semitic materials online, and published reports, linking him to the Black Hebrew Israelites movement, whose adherents believe African Americans are the true descendants of the ancient Israelites.  Authorities say the extent of his involvement in that group remains unclear, the law enforcement official said.  The Black Hebrew Israelites has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group that tracks such movements.