US: Former Black Hebrew Israelite among Jersey City shooting suspects

(New York Post)

One of the two shooters who fatally shot up a Jersey City Jewish deli in what officials say was a “targeted” attack posted anti-Jewish and anti-police messages to social media before the chaotic attack that left three civilians and a cop dead, law enforcement sources said Wednesday.

Sources said David Anderson, who committed the deadly Tuesday attack with a woman identified as Francine Graham, was a one-time follower of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and made the hateful postings on his social media page.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said Wednesday that the pair of gun-wielding attackers were captured on CCTV footage “slowly” rolling up to the Jersey City Kosher Supermarket in the Greenville neighborhood in a van before they stopped in front, “calmly opened the door with two long rifles” and “began firing from the street” into the store.

A note with religious writing was recovered by investigators from inside the stolen U-Haul van that the shooters were in, sources said.

Jersey City officials have not condemned the shooting as a hate crime or anti-Semitic but did say that it was “targeted.”

Meanwhile, community sources identified the slain civilians Wednesday as Moshe Deutsch, 22, a customer at the Jewish grocery store; Leah Mindel Ferencz, 33, a co-owner of the store; and a delivery worker at the deli.

Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, who runs the New Jersey synagogue Chabad Lubavitch of Hoboken, said he frequents the deli and knew the victims.