The FBI is investigating this week's deadly Jersey City shooting spree as a potential act of domestic terrorism, amid mounting evidence that the two suspects were motivated by anti-Semitic and anti-police hatred.
Authorities said Thursday that the suspects, David Anderson and Francine Graham, had both previously "expressed interest" in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, sects of which regularly denounce Jews. While a definitive link has not been established, the shooters' social media posts and other evidence "reflected a hatred of the Jewish people media as well as a hatred of law enforcement," according to New Jersey Attorney General Grubir Grewa.
Law enforcement officers recovered six guns following the rampage, along with a "viable" pipe bomb inside the U-Haul van used by the suspects. Anderson carried an AR-15 style rifle, while Graham used a Mossberg shotgun, officials said.
A video circulating in Hasidic What'sApp groups shows a man unleashing a barrage of bullets as he walks toward the market, followed by a woman carrying a shotgun. It's believed that the three civilian victims inside the Jewish grocery were killed within minutes.
As new details continued to emerge in the wake of the shooting, thousands of Hasidic Jews gathered Wednesday to grieve the loss of community members Leah Mindel Ferencz and Moshe Deutsch.
Ferencz, a 33-year-old mother of three, co-owned the JC Kosher supermarket where the hourslong stand-off took place. She was described by Rabbi David Niederman as a "pioneer," who'd helped build an important community hub for the Greenville neighborhood's burgeoning Jewish population.
Deutsch, a Yeshiva student who volunteered with sick kids through the organization Chai Lifeline, was shopping at the grocery store when the pair burst in and opened fire. He was the son of prominent Jewish leader Abe Deutsch.
"He was a special person," recalled Hershel Deutsch, a cousin of the 24-year-old victim. "He was a person that...had a good word to everybody, smiled, did good things and just was a nice guy."
Some who attended the funerals on Thursday said that the carnage had left the entire Jewish community shaken—in Jersey City and beyond.
"Before we felt more secured," said Moshe Blumenberg, a teacher from Union City, NJ who attended the Williamsburg service. "We have police, we have everything. Now we see the only one who can protect us is God, and it's very terrifying."
The third civilian victim, Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, worked as a store clerk at the kosher market.
“My husband was a good man, truly he was, a good father, a good friend, a good son. There are very few men like that,” his widow, Martha Freire, told Univision in Spanish. “Ten years waiting for my daughter until God blessed us. Now he’s not going to be able to be with her. He wanted to see her graduate college, get married, have children.”
His nephew, Xavier Andres Ruiz, told Gothamist/WNYC that Rodriguez loved to sing to his daughter. Ruiz confirmed that a GoFundMe to help the family pay for expenses is legitimate.
The fourth victim, Detective Joseph Seal, spent fifteen years on the Jersey City police force. Officials said Seals was fatally shot during a confrontation with the killers at a cemetery, minutes before the attack. The nature of that stop remains unclear, though officials say that both Anderson and Graham are suspects in the murder of Michael Rumberger, a 34-year-old livery driver whose body was found in a Lincoln Town Car in Bayonne, N.J. this weekend.
Attorney General Grewal reiterated on Thursday that, without the actions of the Jersey City police, "the outcome would've been far, far worse."
Funeral details for Rodriguez and Seal have not yet been announced.
We'll update this post as we learn more.
