California man Jaime Tran was charged on two counts of hate crimes Friday, with authorities alleging Mr. Tran shot two Jewish men in two separate incidents.
The two incidents took place outside two separate synagogues in Los Angeles’ Pico-Robertson district.
Mr. Tran is accused of shooting the first victim in the lower back at close range as he left religious services at around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday.
On Thursday at around 8 a.m., authorities allege Mr. Tran struck again, shooting the second victim at close range as he left services, wounding him in the upper arm.
Both victims survived the shootings.
“They didn’t stop them to get their wallet, there was no struggle, the guy just came out of the bushes, shot my friend and ran away. What other reasoning could you have?,” neighborhood resident Vivian Eisenstadt told KABC-TV, a Los Angeles ABC affiliate.
In a Mirandized interview, Mr. Tran told investigators that he had searched for a kosher market on Yelp, and knew his victims were Jewish based on their “head gear,” according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Cody Bescript.
Mr. Tran in the interview admitted to both shootings.
Furthermore, Mr. Tran has a history of anti-Semitic statements. Between August and November 2022, Mr. Tran is alleged to have sent threats via text to a former dental school classmate, writing ““Someone is going to kill you, Jew” and “I want you dead, Jew.”
A Nov. 25, 2022 email to multiple former classmates described Jewish people as “primitive” and blamed COVID-19 on the “Iranian Jew,” Mr. Bescript wrote in the affidavit.
“Over the past two days, our community experienced two horrific acts we believe were motivated by antisemitic ideology that caused him to target the Jewish community,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada said in an announcement from his office.
Since authorities allege that Mr. Tran aimed to kill both men, he faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted. Mr. Tran is currently in FBI custody with bail set at $2 million, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Los Angeles authorities have denounced the attacks.
“These attacks against members of our Jewish community in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood are absolutely unacceptable. … I want to be very clear: anti-Semitism and hate crimes have no place in our city … Thank you to the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department … who will be stepping up patrols around Jewish places of worship and surrounding neighborhoods,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.
The Jewish community, meanwhile, remains shaken after the shootings and preceding anti-Semitic incidents.
“There’s an incredible amount of fear, and some anger. After a year and a half of this intense uptick, we’ve moved from spray paint and flyers to bullets. Hate speech leads to hate crimes” said Rabbi Noah Farkas, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, according to the San Bernardino Sun.
Neighborhood resident Yael Mehrannia indicated to KABC-TV that “I usually take walks on Shabbat on Saturdays. It’s the whole community – we walk to synagogue, we walk to our friends’ houses. This week I’m telling my family I think we should stay home.”
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