This archive report was first published on 12 December 2019.
On December 10, 2019, a deadly rampage in Jersey City, New Jersey, ended with one police officer slain and three bystanders killed at a kosher market. The authorities have since treated the incident as an act of domestic terrorism.
According to investigators, the two attackers, David N. Anderson and Francine Graham, were 'fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs.' New Jersey's attorney general, Gurbir S. Grewal, made this statement at a news conference.
As evidence mounted, the F.B.I. began investigating the violence as 'a domestic terrorism incident with a hate crime bias.' Gregory W. Ehrie, the special agent in charge of the bureau's office in Newark, confirmed this.
The attackers had deliberately targeted the JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City's Greenville neighborhood, which is home to a growing Hasidic community. Surveillance video showed them storming into the market, ignoring others on the street, and beginning to fire.
Leah Mindel Ferencz, Moshe Deutsch, and Douglas Miguel Rodriguez were killed within minutes of the assailants' entrance. The attackers then began firing at police officers responding to calls about shots being fired.
By that point, the shooters were aiming their fire at law enforcement officials only, and not at others on the street, said Mr. Grewal.
Inside the supermarket, investigators found an AR-15-style rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun that they believed the attackers carried into the store. They also found two 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols.
Inside the rental van, investigators found another weapon, a Ruger Mark IV with a homemade silencer and a homemade device to catch shell casings. The van was also outfitted with ballistic panels, which are typically used to defend against bullets.
Investigators traced the serial numbers on two of the weapons and believed that Ms. Graham bought them in at different stores in Ohio in 2018.
Both attackers had expressed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelites, a religious movement with dozens of groups that believe, in general, that the chosen ones are black, Native American, and Hispanic people, but not white people.
While the movement is not known for promoting violence, some of its offshoots have been described as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Law enforcement officials had previously said that a brief but rambling religious manifesto-style note was found inside the attackers' van. It did not establish a clear motive for the shooting, but in nearly illegible handwriting, it indicated that Mr. Anderson believed he was charged with carrying out 'God's will.'
