Investigators believe that the gunmen in a Tuesday shootout at a kosher supermarket in New Jersey deliberately attacked the store, though there was no immediate word on their suspected motive."Based on our initial investigation (which is ongoing) we now believe the active shooters targeted the location they attacked," Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said.
Authorities had initially said that they did not believe that the JC Kosher Supermarket had been singled out. Fulop did not elaborate on why authorities now believe the market was targeted.
The gun battle left at least six people dead ‐ three bystanders, one police officer and two suspected shooters.
Authorities have not released information on the bystanders or gunmen who were killed, but Chabad identified two of the dead as store owner Leah Minda Ferencz, 33, and Moshe Deutsch, 24, both members of the local Hasidic community.
Any bets the shooters were of an ethnic group and religion that is known to be violently opposed to Jews living?
| You win. Update from the Daily Mail at 11:25 a.m. ET: |
- Francine Graham and David Anderson opened fire on Detective Joseph Seals at 12.30pm in a cemetery in Jersey City
- Anderson had been a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement made famous by the Covington Catholic High School kerfuffle
- Before the rampage he had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts on social media
- Seals was investigating the murder of livery cab driver Michael Rumberger, who was found dead on Saturday
- After killing the cop, the gunmen drove a stolen U-Haul to JC Kosher Supermarket nearby
- They then barricaded themselves inside with a large amount of ammunition and engaged in a two-hour shootout with police and SWAT teams
- It ended with SWAT teams ramming the storefront; once they got inside, they found the two gunmen dead and three innocent people also killed