Page 7 - AT

A7
U.S. NEWS Thursday 12 december 2019

New Jersey mayor says attackers targeted Jewish market

By DAVID PORTER and JIM The Southern Poverty Law
MUSTIAN Center has labeled the He-
Associated Press brew Israelites a black su-
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — premacist group.
The man and woman who The shooting in the city of
stormed a Jewish market 270,000 people across the
in a deadly shooting in Jer- Hudson River from New York
sey City clearly targeted City began at a graveyard,
the place, the mayor said where Detective Joseph
Wednesday, amid growing Seals, a 40-year-old mem-
fears the bloodshed was ber of a unit devoted to
an anti-Semitic attack. taking illegal guns off the
New Jersey Attorney Gen- street, was gunned down
eral Gurbil Grewal, though, by the assailants, authori-
cautioned that the motive ties said. The killers then
for the attack that left six drove a stolen rental van
people dead Tuesday was about a mile to the kosher
still under investigation. The market.
two assailants were killed Grewal said that within sec-
along with three people onds of pulling up to the
inside the kosher market market, Anderson got out
and a police officer in an with a rifle and immedi-
hourslong gunbattle and ately began shooting, and
standoff that began at a Graham followed him into
cemetery. the store. He would not say
“As we speak, we are work- whether Graham had a Responders work to clean up the scene of Tuesday’s shooting that left multiple people dead at a
kosher market on Wednesday Dec. 11, 2019, in Jersey City, N.J.
ing to learn more about the weapon. Associated Press
shooters’ motivations and A pipe bomb was found
whether others may be in- in the attackers’ van, FBI the sound of high-powered ties as Miguel Douglas, 49. Gov. Andrew Cuomo pro-
volved,” Grewal said. agent Gregory Ehrie said. rifle fire and turned the city A fourth person managed nounced it a “deliberate
The killers were identified as Mayor Steven Fulop noted into what looked like a war to escape from the store, attack on the Jewish com-
David N. Anderson, 47, and that surveillance video of zone, with SWAT officers in Grewal said. munity.”
Francine Graham, 50 both the van showed the assail- full tactical gear swarming Jewish leaders and the They announced tighter
of them also suspects in the ants driving slowly through the neighborhood. Anti-Defamation League, police protection of syna-
slaying of an Uber driver the city’s streets and then Five bodies were found at which tracks anti-Semitic gogues and other Jewish
found dead in the trunk of stopping outside the gro- the store: the killers and attacks, expressed con- establishments in New York
a car in nearby Bayonne cery, where they calmly three people who were cern about the deaths. as a precaution.
over the weekend, Grewal got out of their van and inside at the time. Police “The report from the Jersey In the deadliest attack on
said. promptly opened fire. said they were confident City mayor saying it was Jews in U.S. history, 11 peo-
Authorities are investigat- “There were multiple other the bystanders were shot a targeted attack makes ple were killed in an Octo-
ing potential connections people on the street, so by the gunmen and not by us incredibly concerned ber 2018 shooting at a syn-
between the attackers and there were many other police. in the Jewish community,” agogue in Pittsburgh.
the Black Hebrew Israelite targets available to them Two of the victims at the said ADL regional director Last April, a gunman
movement, some of whose that they bypassed to at- store were identified by Evan Bernstein. opened fire at a synagogue
members are known to rail tack that place, so it was members of the Orthodox “They want answers. They north of San Diego, killing a
against whites and Jews, clear that was their target Jewish community as Min- demand answers. If this woman and wounding a
a law enforcement official and they intended to harm del Ferencz, 31, who with was truly a targeted killing rabbi and two others.
familiar with the case said. people inside,” the mayor her husband owned the of Jews, then we need to The kosher grocery is a
Investigators also are scour- said of the attackers. grocery, and 24-year-old know that right away, and central fixture in a growing
ing social media postings But Fulop cautioned: “I Moshe Deutsch, a rabbini- there needs to be the push- community of Orthodox
of at least one of the gun- didn’t use the word `anti- cal student from Brooklyn ing back on this at the high- Jews who have been mov-
men in search of a motive, Semitic.’ who was shopping there. est levels possible.” ing to Jersey City in recent
said the official, who spoke Anything else is open for in- The Ferencz family had New York Mayor Bill de Bla- years and settling in what
on condition of anonymity vestigation.” moved to Jersey City from sio said on MSNBC that the was a mostly black sec-
because the investigation The drawn-out battle with Brooklyn. The third victim attack was “clearly a hate tion of Jersey City, causing
is still going on. police filled the streets with was identified by authori- crime,” while New York some resentment.q