The suspected gunmen behind a Jersey City shooting on Tuesday that killed four people “held views that reflected hatred of the Jewish people as well as a hatred of law enforcement,” and the incident is now being treated as an act of “domestic terrorism,” authorities said Thursday.
Authorities said David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, killed 40-year-old Jersey City Police Det. Joseph Seals around 12:30 p.m. at Bay View Cemetery, then drove a white U-Haul van to the JC Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Drive, where three others died in a hate-fueled attack.
Investigators believe the two suspects were “fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said at a Thursday news conference. Federal investigators are now treating the shooting as “a domestic terrorism incident with a hate crime bias,” FBI agent Gregory W. Ehrie said Thursday.
Authorities also confirmed both suspects “expressed interest” in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, but said they “have not definitively established any formal links to that org or any other group.” The movement is designated as a “militant” hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group.
Read it at The New York Times
