LOS ANGELES, CA — A Seattle resident will stand trial for allegedly trying to run down two men outside a Los Angeles synagogue while shouting anti-Semitic epithets.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil ordered Mohamed Abdi Mohamed, 33, to stand trial Wednesday, finding sufficient evidence for the charges of hate crime and assault with a deadly weapon. According to police Mohamed targeted two men dressed in traditional Jewish garb as there were walking along the sidewalk at about 9:30 p.m. Nov. 23 near La Brea and Oakwood avenues. According to the men, Mohamed repeatedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs and ran a red light, made a U-turn and drove toward them at high speed as they took cover behind a light pole, according to the detective.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective Easley De Larkin told the judge that the victims told police that they were afraid that Mohamed was "going to kill them." Ultimately, the car stopped about three feet away from the pair. They took off running in opposite directions. According to De Larkin, Mohamed drove a second time toward one of the men, coming within about three feet of him as he hid behind an electrical box.

Both of the men subsequently identified Mohamed as the man who had driven a vehicle toward them, De Larkin said. The detective testified that police subsequently found a copy of the Koran on the dashboard and a large, serrated buck knife between the passenger seat and passenger door, along with a cell phone that included Google searches about celebrating the 9/11 tragedy, former FBI director James Comey and a similar vehicle attack in New York. Authorities discovered that he had unsuccessfully tried to buy a gun at two Seattle-area gun stores, and a search of Mohamed's Seattle home turned up an anti-Semitic pamphlet, De Larkin told the judge.

Investigators called on the perspective of Brian Michael Jenkins, an expert on vehicle ramming attacks. He concluded that what happened that night was consistent with other attacks throughout the world in which vehicles are used to cause death or great bodily injury, the detective testified.

Under cross-examination, De Larkin acknowledged that he has not seen any video footage of the alleged attack.

Mohamed is acting as his own attorney, and did not make a motion to dismiss the case. He was handcuffed and led back to a courtroom lockup after being ordered to return to a downtown Los Angeles courtroom April 17 for arraignment. LAPD Chief Michel Moore told reporters last November that the pair had just left a synagogue when they encountered Mohamed.