Suspects in Jersey City shooting targeted kosher market: 'It began with an attack on civilians'

Show Caption Hide Caption President Trump speaks on New Jersey shooting at Hanukkah reception President Trump talks about the New Jersey shooting at the Hanukkah reception where he signed executive order on anti-Semitism.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – A shooting spree that killed a police officer and three others targeted a kosher market and could have been far more deadly had officers on patrol nearby not quickly intervened, city officials said Wednesday.

"We now know this did not begin with gunfire between police officers," city Public Safety Director James Shea said. "It began with an attack on civilians in the store."

In an afternoon news conference, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said a pipe bomb was recovered at the scene, and he identified the attackers – who were killed by police officers in a long shootout – as David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50.

Grewal identified the victims as Mindy Ferenz, 32; Miguel Douglas, 49; and Moshe Deutsh, 24. Ferenz and Deutsh were believed to be cousins and members of an Orthodox community. Chabad Rabbi Moshe Schapiro said Ferenz and her husband owned the market.

Grewal said a fourth person in the store, whom he did not name, escaped the attack.

Authorities suspect Anderson and Graham gunned down police Detective Joe Seals around noon Tuesday at a cemetery before heading to the market a mile away. They're also the lead suspects in the killing of a Jersey City man found beaten to death in the trunk of a car Saturday night.

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Shea said surveillance video shows two people pull up in front of the JC Kosher Supermarket in a stolen van, slowly exit the vehicle armed with long guns and "immediately begin firing." Shea, noting that the market is surrounded by schools and other stores, said the officers "heroically placed themselves in the line of fire."

"Both of them received gunshot wounds as a result," Shea said. Officers Ray Sanchez and Mariela Fernandez were treated at a hospital and released.

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Initially, Shea and Mayor Steven Fulop declined to characterize the attack as an anti-Semitic hate crime. Multiple media outlets, including The New York Times, reported that one of the suspects published anti-Semitic posts on social media.

The Associated Press, citing a law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly, said investigators believe the two dead attackers – who were thought to be a couple – identified themselves in the past as Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement whose members have been known to rail against whites and Jews.

Later on Wednesday, Fulop posted a series of tweets denouncing the attack as a hate crime motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment, and he repeated that contention at a late-afternoon news conference in front of the market.

“It should be viewed as a hate crime and called out aggressively . . . and quickly,” Fulop said. “There’s no question it was an attack on the Jewish community. There’s no other way to interpret it when you look at the facts. As a Holocaust survivor family, it’s important for me to recognize it for what it is.''

"When you look at all of their actions during the day,'' Fulop added, "it's very clear what they tried to do and where they went and why they went and how they acted.''

We shouldn’t parse words. To stop hate + anti-semitism we need to call it out QUICKLY for what it is. Some will say don’t call it anti-semitism or a hate crime till a longer review but being Jewish myself + the grandson of holocaust survivors I know enough to call it what this is — Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) December 11, 2019

Grewal said the shooters' motivation remains under investigation, and he urged the media not to speculate about any ideology that might have prompted the assault.

The attorney general highlighted the diversity of Jersey City and the area where the market sits, next to a Catholic school and near a Dominican bodega.

"Yesterday that city came under attack, not just the city but the values this city stands for, and we will respond as we have responded in the past,'' he said. "And we recognize many in the community are coming together by working together and by grieving together and showing that we are stronger than the hate that fueled this terrible tragedy.’’

During that same media briefing, the authorities warned about scams seeking to take advantage of people trying to help those affected by the shooting.

Craig Carpenito, U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said fake GoFundMe pages have been set up purporting to raise money for victims' relatives. He said no legitimate pages had been established as of Tuesday night.

"I can't find the words for how disgusting this conduct is,'' Carpenito said, urging those exposed to the fraud to contact the FBI.

New Jersey gun battle, six people killed including an officer A raging gun battle erupted in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Tuesday. Bystanders said gunfire rang out continuously for about an hour.

Evan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he nervously awaits details on the attack.

“The Jewish community is shaken,” Bernstein said.

Residents were rattled by the violence.

“I just think that everyone wants to leave,” said Khalis Harris, 37, who has lived in the neighborhood his entire life. “If it’s not yesterday’s shooting, it’ll be another one."

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said two of the victims were borough natives. Authorities said anti-Semitic hate crimes have risen 22% in the city in 2019.

“History isn’t trying to talk to us right now – it’s screaming at us,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. He warned Americans not to discount the possibility that a Holocaust could happen again: “It is not the distant past. It’s right here with us.”

Rabbi David Lederman, who spoke on behalf of the Jewish community, thanked de Blasio for “having the courage” to call the shooting an act of anti-Semitism. Lederman fought back tears as he recounted the lives of the Jewish victims.

"May all communities, including us in the Jewish community, feel that we are safe," Lederman said.

Jersey City shooting: Police officer killed was a 15-year veteran and father of five

Still unclear is the connection between the market shooting and the killing of Seals in the cemetery in another section of the city of 270,000 people.

Shea did not address that information Wednesday. Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said Tuesday that the officer was trying to stop some “bad guys” near Bayview Cemetery.

Seals, a married father of five, was part of a department tasked to get guns off the city's streets. Seals was on duty and in plainclothes when he was shot by at least one of the suspects, Kelly said.

The suspects then drove a stolen rental van about a mile and engaged police in the shootout from inside the kosher market. The shootout lasted two hours before police killed the suspects around 2:30 p.m. The suspects and three other people were found dead inside the store.

The store is in a section of the city that has become home to about 100 Orthodox Jewish families. The front of the market was destroyed, the storefront in ruins. Bullet holes riddled the walls and windows of Sacred Heart School that face the market.

New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, the brother of James Shea, said Jewish sites throughout the city are getting extra security.

"There is an escalation" in anti-Semitic hate crimes, Shea said. "It's ignorance, it's hate and it has to be denounced."

Bacon reported from McLean, Virginia. Contributing: Deena Yellin, Monsy Alvarado, Kristie Cattafi, Terrence T. McDonald and James M. O'Neill, NorthJersey.com; Grace Hauck, USA TODAY