The date of the planned attack coincides with the anniversary of the New Zealand mass shooting incident.

By World Israel News Staff

The FBI on Friday arrested a neo-Nazi teenager from Michigan on charges of plotting a mass shooting at a synagogue.

Seann Patrick Pietila, 19 years old, acknowledged that he had uploaded antisemitic content on his Instagram account and applauded other far-right murderers, including the gunmen behind the mass shootings in Norway (2011) and New Zealand (2019).

During a search of Pietila’s residence in Upper Peninsula, federal agents discovered a Nazi flag and an assortment of weapons, including assault rifles, a shotgun, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails.

FBI investigators discovered a note on his phone that suggested he planned to attack the Shaarey Zedek Congregation synagogue in East Lansing, Michigan, and the date March 15, 2024, which coincides with the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch, New Zealand mass shooting incident, where a white supremacist killed 51 Muslims.

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Gunfire in Lod narrowly misses a woman lying in bed, prompting National Security Minister to issue ultimatum to police.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel Police took action in Lod overnight Thursday after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told a station commander at 2AM that he would come to the city himself if quiet was not restored, after fielding several panicked messages from Jewish residents who had been hearing gunfire near their homes for an hour, Israel National News reported Thursday.

One woman, Ofra Lax, had an even more frightening experience, as she told the minister that a bullet had just missed her.

He wrote back to the residents that he had demanded that forces be sent to the scene and that “if the shooting doesn’t calm down within the next few minutes, I intend to come to the city to inspect the situation from in the field and demand intensive action to fight the dangerous illegal weapons.”

The report said that a large force of officers arrived very shortly thereafter, made several arrests, and the gunfire ceased. The residents were very thankful, telling INN that Ben-Gvir has been very attentive to the ongoing issue of Arab violence in their mixed city since he entered his office.

“He listened to our distress and is doing everything he can to fix it. We have to restore the security in Lod,” they stressed.

Lax, a journalist for INN’s parallel newspaper, Besheva, expressed both gratitude for her near-miss and incredulity about the perilous situation that is the norm in her town.

“A great miracle happened to me tonight,” she wrote after the incident. “I decided to go to bed early. 10:00 p.m. in bed. The city is indeed shaking from gunshots, but I try to ignore it.”

Suddenly she felt a small shower of wood, she wrote, so she called her husband in, and they found the bullet, which had hit her nightstand, missing her by mere inches.

“How does this happen in a major city in Israel? How does it make sense that they shoot here every night? And the truth? Not only here. I’m holding my breath, waiting for something to change,” she added.

Ben-Gvir has visited the city several times since the government was formed and has firmly backed the residents’ call to restore governability in Lod, which has been a constant cry since violent Arab rioting took place there during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021.

His answer is his country-wide plan to hire more than 3,200 police officers, raise salaries significantly to make the job more attractive, and establish a National Guard to augment the force in fighting crime as well as terrorism.

The budget for all this, he said in May, should come “in the next few months.”

Lod Mayor Yair Revivo wants a faster solution, saying Thursday, “If the Shin Bet law to deal with Arab crime is not passed immediately, I will call for the toppling of the government.”

The idea to use Israel’s internal security agency with all its intelligence and surveillance methods that are applied to prevent terrorist attacks in order to fight the upsurge in crime in the Arab sector, is a controversial one. It was first raised in 2021 by the previous government.

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According to the government’s Census Bureau, New York suffered “the largest annual numeric and percent population decline” in 2022 out of all the states.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In her New Year’s inaugural address, New York governor Kathy Hochul prioritized the regaining of a sense of personal safety and making her state more affordable for residents in a bid to “reverse the trend” of people leaving for other states of the Union.

Her comments drew ridicule from many who recalled that during her election campaign, she told her political foes, including Republican opponent Rep. Lee Zeldin, to “just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK? You are not New Yorkers.”

Zeldin himself mocked her address, tweeting, “Here’s a great place for Hochul to start: Stop telling people to get on a bus and move to Florida if they disagree with your views.”

Here’s a great place for Hochul to start:

Stop telling people to get on a bus and move to Florida if they disagree with your views. https://t.co/7fYjKuoYOF

— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) January 2, 2023

According to the government’s Census Bureau, New York suffered “the largest annual numeric and percent population decline” in 2022 out of all the states, with a net domestic migration of just under 300,000 residents.

By contrast, the Bureau noted that Florida was the fastest-growing state, with a population increase of nearly two percent.

“First, we must — and will — make our state safer,” Hochul vowed during her address. “This means New Yorkers can walk our streets and ride our subways, our kids can go to school, free from fear.”

She mentioned “the gun violence epidemic” and “the rise in hate crimes,” calling out antisemitism first in a list that included hatred of the Asian and LGBTQ sectors.

“Secondly, we have to make our state more affordable…. New Yorkers are just struggling to pay rent, food and gas to get to their jobs…. We’re going to fight for them. And we must reverse the trend of people leaving our state in search of lower costs and opportunities elsewhere. We can do this,” she said during Sunday’s speech.

In a gubernatorial debate with Zeldin in October, she downplayed concerns over violence on the streets when challenged by her opponent, drawing outrage from former state assemblyman Dov Hikind.

“When asked about crime on the subway, Hochul downplayed the violence by saying, it is just ‘a sense of fear in peoples’ minds,’” Hikind said in a vlog following the televised event. “This is what Hochul believes. How dare she downplay the very real and legitimate fears of New Yorkers.”

Hochul’s address did not outline any specific policies, as she will be introducing her “ambitious” plans on January 10 in the annual “State of the State” speech at the start of the new state legislative session.

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Gunman, a former police officer fired from the force over drug offenses, killed himself afterwards.

By Associated Press

A former policeman burst into a day care center in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing dozens of children and teachers and then firing on more people as he fled in the deadliest rampage in the nation’s history.

The assailant, who authorities said was fired from the force earlier this year because of a drug offense, took his own life after killing his own wife and child at home.

A witness said staff at the day care locked the door when they saw the assailant approaching with a gun, but he shot his way in.

In footage posted online after the attack, frantic family members could be heard weeping outside the day care, and one image showed the floor of one room smeared with blood and sleeping mats scattered about. Pictures of the alphabet and other colorful decorations adorned the walls.

At least 37 people were killed in the attack, according to police spokesman Archayon Kraithong. Another 12 people were wounded. At least 24 of the dead were children, mostly preschoolers.

“The teacher who died, she had a child in her arms,” a witness, whose name wasn’t given, told Thailand’s Kom Chad Luek television at the scene. “I didn’t think he would kill children, but he shot at the door and shot right through it.”

Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old former police officer Panya Kamrap. Police Maj. Gen. Paisal Luesomboon told PPTV in an interview that he was fired from the force earlier this year because of drug-related offenses.

In the attack he used multiple weapons, including a handgun, a shotgun and a knife, Paisel said.

Local police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapha told reporters that the suspect was a sergeant on the force before he was fired, and that the main weapon he used was a 9mm pistol that he had purchased himself.

“We are still investigating all of this and have to learn from it,” he said. “Today is the first day and we don’t have all the details.”

Police have not given a full breakdown of the death toll, but they have said at least 22 children and two adults were killed at the day care in the northeastern Thai town of Nongbua Lamphu.

Firearm-related deaths in Thailand are much lower than in countries like the United States and Brazil, but higher than in countries like Japan and Singapore that have strict gun control laws. The rate of firearms related deaths in 2019 was about 4 per 100,000, compared with about 11 per 100,000 in the U.S. and nearly 23 per 100,000 in Brazil.

Last month, a clerk shot co-workers at Thailand’s Army War College in Bangkok, killing two and wounding another before he was arrested.

The country’s previous worst mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before eventually being killed by them.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who was to travel to the town on Friday, told reporters that initial reports were that the former officer was having personal problems.

“This shouldn’t happen,” he said. “I feel deep sadness toward the victims and their relatives.”

The post Former policeman kills 37, mostly children, in day care rampage appeared first on World Israel News.

A gunman shot three people, including two first responders, at the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo in Amarillo on Monday night before he was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies.

The post WATCH: Gunman shoots three at Texas fair appeared first on World Israel News.

The First Lady blamed gun violence, the war in Ukraine, and SCOTUS striking Roe v. Wade for sidetracking her husband. 

By Debbie Reiss, World Israel News

In remarks that beggar belief, First Lady Jill Biden complained to a room full of Democratic donors that her husband’s “hopes and plans” for his presidency were dashed when “so many things were thrown his way.”

“[The President] had so many hopes and plans for things he wanted to do, but every time you turned around, he had to address the problems of the moment,” the First Lady said at a private Democratic National Committee fundraiser in in Nantucket, Mass., on Saturday, CNN reported.

“He’s just had so many things thrown his way,” she went on. “Who would have ever thought about what happened [with the Supreme Court overturning] Roe v. Wade? Well, maybe we saw it coming, but still we didn’t believe it. The gun violence in this country is absolutely appalling. We didn’t see the war in Ukraine coming.”

Biden, 71, also blamed Republicans for her husband’s challenges passing his agenda. However, it was Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democratic senator, who nixed Biden’s Build Back Better plan last December, CNN noted, and more recently dismissed any climate or tax provisions in the Democrats’ new economic legislation.

“I know there are so many nay-sayers who say we’ll get slammed in the midterms. Okay. The Republicans are working hard, they stick together, for good or evil. So, we just have to work harder,” she said.

Her remarks come amid dismal ratings for President Biden, with just 33 percent approval according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. The same survey found that only 13 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction.

The First Lady went on to lament that she, too, has been distracted by “problems of the moment.”

“I was saying to myself, ‘Okay, I was second lady. I worked on community colleges. I worked on military families. I’ve worked on cancer.’ They were supposed to be my areas of focus. But then when we got [in the White House,] I had to be, with all that was happening, the first lady of the moment.”

Biden also bizarrely took American youth to task for not doing enough against the Supreme Court’s abortion decision.

“So many young girls, my own grandchildren included, went up to the Supreme Court and marched. I say, ‘Okay, good for you. But what are you going to do next? You feel good about yourself because you voiced your opinion but what are you going to do next? What is your plan?’”

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Two-year-old Aiden McCarthy will be raised by his grandparents.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

A GoFundMe campaign organized to help support an orphaned Jewish toddler who parents were both killed in the mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday has raised nearly $3 million.

Irina McCarthy, 35 — a Jewish immigrant from Russia who moved to the Chicago area with her parents — and Kevin McCarthy, 37, were both killed while attending the parade with their 2-year-old son Aiden McCarthy. Kevin was struck by a bullet while shielding his son with his body, according to Irina’s father, Michael Levberg. Also wounded in the shooting was Aiden’s paternal grandmother Margo McCarthy, who had attended the parade with her son and daughter-in-law.

After the shooting, Aiden was found “walking in the street” alone, his grandfather told the Chicago Sun Times. Photos began circulating of the toddler online and after a neighbor showed Levberg the picture, he picked up his grandson at the police station. “When I picked him up, he said, ‘Are Mommy and Daddy coming soon?’” Levberg said. “He doesn’t understand.”

The GoFundMe page set up for young boy said, “Aiden will be cared for by his loving family and he will have a long road ahead to heal, find stability, and ultimately navigate life as an orphan. He is surrounded by a community of friends and extended family that will embrace him with love, and any means available to ensure he has everything he needs as he grows.”

The fundraiser aims to help “support him and the caregivers who will be tasked with raising, caring for, and supporting Aiden as he and his support system embark on this unexpected journey.”

Levberg told the Chicago Sun Times that Irina, his only child, “was the love of my life” and that the couple was “crazy about their child.”

Kevin McCarthy is also survived by his father Michael and sister Katie. A family member said, “We’re going to join forces to support Aiden here and to do the best we can to help our nation try and prevent these events from happening in the future.”

Highland Park native Robert E. Crimo III, 21, admitted during his first court appearance on Wednesday to opening fire on the Independence Day parade, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others. He faces seven counts of first-degree murder.

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“I’m a realist. There are terror attacks here. I want the ability to protect myself and those who are standing next to me,” Orin Julie told World Israel News.

By Debbie Reiss, World Israel News

Sporting a skin-tight tank top, combat pants, drop thigh holster and swinging ponytail, Orin Julie is a dead ringer for guns a-blazing video game heroine Lara Croft.

Emerging from a tunnel dug by the Hezbollah terror group, Julie poses for her army of fans on social media, an Israeli flag tied around her neck whipping in the wind behind her. A large tattoo on her forearm of a military-issued AR15 intertwined with the image of rose stands in stark contrast to her immaculately manicured nails.

Queen of Guns (Pinterest)

“Israel needs more guns on the streets,” the 28-year-old influencer and gun rights activist tells World Israel News unapologetically.

“I’m a realist. There are terror attacks here. I want the ability to protect myself and those who are standing next to me. Since it’s impossible to put a cop on every street corner, I want to multiply the power of the police and the army.”

Julie, who served three years in a combat unit in the Israel Defense Forces, maintains that terror attacks like the recent shooting spree in a Tel Aviv bar that left three people dead, could have been avoided if more civilians had access to guns.

“I’m not afraid of terrorists in Israel, because I carry a firearm,” she said.

There are an estimated half a million illegal guns in Israel, according to the Knesset Committee for the Promotion of the Status of Women. The overwhelming majority are found in the Arab sector, with that population suffering the consequences with a disproportionately high homicide rate.

Privately held gun owners account for only a fifth of that, with just over 100,000 Israelis licensed to carry firearms, and even then the bullet limit is capped to 50. The procedure to obtain a license is notoriously difficult, with 40% of applicants turned away.

“Because the government can’t fight the [spread of guns] in Arab society, they take them away from the responsible, law-abiding citizens,” Julie said.

“And at the same time, you have 18-year-olds who are fully trained to hold a weapon, and yet the minute they leave the army, they’re barred from having one. It’s crazy.”

Queen of Guns (Pinterest)

Julie, whose nom de guerre on social media is — perhaps unsurprisingly — Queen of Guns, describes herself as a “huge fan” of the Second Amendment.

“I really believe that if a person was born free, they can own firearms,” she said.

Mass shootings on the scale seen only in the U.S. does not point to a firearm problem, Julie asserts, but to a problem with mental health challenges.

“There are millions of Americans who legally own firearms. If they were the problem, we would know it. They are not the problem. The problem is mental health, illegal firearms and the black market.”

According to Julie, it’s incumbent on the American government to dedicate more resources to combatting mental health issues and insure that people are trained to use firearms properly.

If she wasn’t living in Israel, she said, she would move to Texas in a heartbeat.

In the meantime, Julie makes do with representing her home country to her fans in Texas and beyond.

“Speaking the truth about Israel was very natural for me,” she said. “People think Israelis wake up in the morning and just kill children and that’s it. They don’t know that 95% of combat soldiers – maybe more – don’t use their firearms even once.”

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“One phone call saved numerous lives on the Fourth of July.”

By Associated Press

Police in Richmond, Virginia, said Wednesday that they thwarted a planned July 4 mass shooting after receiving a tip that led to the arrest of two men and the seizure of multiple guns — an announcement that came just two days after a deadly mass shooting on the holiday in a Chicago suburb.

A “hero citizen” overheard a conversation indicating there was an attack being planned on an Independence Day celebration in the capital city and called police to report it, Police Chief Gerald Smith said at a news conference. The caller said the attack was planned for the Dogwood Dell Amphitheater, where an annual fireworks show is held, Smith said.

“One phone call saved numerous lives on the Fourth of July,” Smith said.

Police initiated an investigation along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, which led to the arrests of two men on charges of being non-U.S. citizens in possession of a firearm, Smith said. He said additional charges are possible.

Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52, was arrested on July 1, the same day police received the tip, Smith said. He said police put a second suspect, Rolman Alberto Balacarcel, 38, under surveillance beginning that day, but did not initially have probable cause to arrest him. He was arrested Tuesday in Albemarle County, near Charlottesville, and was being held in a local jail.

Police spokesperson Tracy Walker said both men are from Guatemala. Initial documents filed in General District Court in Richmond say both Alvarado-Dubon and Balacarcel are not in the U.S. legally. The documents, which say Alvarado-Dubon has an expired visa, did not include any details about the alleged plot.

Court documents note bond was set at $15,000 for Alvarado-Dubon on Wednesday, but it was unclear if he had been released. The documents say he has lived in the Richmond area for three years and works full time in the construction industry. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled in Richmond on Aug. 2. Alvarado-Dubon’s attorney, Jose Aponte, declined to comment Wednesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Balacarcel had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Smith said the two men lived together at a Richmond house, where officers seized two assault rifles, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that were in plain view. He said police have not determined a motive for the planned attack.

“l want to thank and applaud the hero in Virginia that stopped a potential massacre by alerting our brave Richmond Police Department Officers that work tirelessly every day to protect our communities,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a tweet. “It’s a great reminder that if you see something, say something to your local PD.”

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who joined the news conference along with members of the city council, decried what he called an epidemic of gun violence across the country.

“Whether you’re at home in your cul-de-sac, or in your neighborhood, or in a park, or at a parade, out dining — you have to keep your head on a swivel,” Stoney said. “And that’s not the country that I know I desire to live in … but those are the facts of the matter at this moment.”

Smith said the apparent plot was unconnected to another shooting that wounded six people in Richmond in the early morning hours of July 4.

The same day, a gunman opened fire from a rooftop during a Fourth of July parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park, killing seven people and injuring more than three dozen.

Robert E. Crimo III was charged with seven counts of murder Tuesday. The shooting sent hundreds of people fleeing in fear and set off an hourslong manhunt. Authorities have not yet identified a motive in that shooting.

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For hours before his arrest, police warned that the gunman was still at large and that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

By Associated Press

The man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade confessed to police that he unleashed a hail of bullets from a rooftop in suburban Chicago and then fled to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated shooting up an event there, authorities said Wednesday.

The suspect turned back to Illinois, where he was later arrested, after deciding he was not prepared to pull off another attack in Wisconsin, Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said at a news conference following a hearing where the 21-year-old man was denied bond.

The parade shooting left another American community reeling — this time affluent Highland Park, home to about 30,000 people near the Lake Michigan shore. More than two dozen people were wounded, some critically, and hundreds of marchers, parents and children fled in a panic.

Covelli said it did not appear that the suspect had planned another attack in Wisconsin, but fled there, saw another Independence Day celebration and “seriously contemplated” firing on it. The assailant had ditched the semi-automatic rifle he used in Illinois, but he had another, similar rifle and about 60 more rounds with him, according to Covelli.

Police later found his phone in Middleton, Wisconsin, which is about 135 miles (217 kilometers) from Highland Park.

For hours before his arrest, police warned that the gunman was still at large and that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Several nearby cities canceled events including parades and fireworks. Most festivities in and around Wisconsin’s capital city went ahead.

Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon said in court that the gunman climbed up the fire escape of a building above the Highland Park parade, “looked down his sights, aimed” and fired at people across the street. He left the shells of 83 bullets and three ammunition magazines on the rooftop.

He initially evaded capture by disguising himself as a woman and blending into the fleeing crowd, according to police.

Some of the wounded remained hospitalized in critical condition, Covelli said, and the death toll could still rise. Already, the deaths from the shooting have left a 2-year-old boy without parents, families mourning the loss of beloved grandparents and a synagogue grieving the death of a congregant who for decades had also worked on the staff.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said he planned to bring attempted murder and aggravated battery charges for each individual who was hurt.

“There will be many, many more charges coming,” he said at a news conference, estimating that those charges would be announced later this month.

If convicted of the first-degree murder charges, the gunman would receive a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The suspect, Robert Crimo III, wore a black long-sleeve shirt as he appeared in court by video. As the prosecutor described the shooting, he said little besides telling the judge that he did not have a lawyer.

On Tuesday, Thomas A. Durkin, a prominent Chicago-based lawyer, said he would represent Crimo and that he intended to enter a not guilty plea to all charges. But Durkin told the court Wednesday that he had a conflict of interest with the case. Crimo has been assigned a public defender.

Rinehart also left open the possibility of charging Crimo’s parents, telling reporters that he “doesn’t want to answer” that question right now as the investigation continues.

Steve Greenberg, the lawyer for Crimo’s parents, told The Associated Press that the parents aren’t concerned about being charged with anything related to their son’s case.

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Gofundme campaign brings in nearly $2 million for two-year-old Aiden McCarthy, who will be raised by his grandparents.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Jewish toddler was saved in the Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooting Monday by his father, who died shielding him with his body.

Kevin and Irina were at an Independence Day parade in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Highland Park with their two-year-old son Aiden when a gunman opened fire on the crowd.

Both parents, in their thirties, were among the seven killed. Some 50 others were injured either by gunshots or while fleeing. As of Wednesday morning, nine people were still hospitalized.

Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, who faces seven charges of first degree murder.

Lauren Silva, who had come to the area to enjoy a breakfast out with her boyfriend and his son, described to the Daily Beast how she found Aiden after hearing the gun shots.

“My boyfriend handed me this little boy and said he was underneath this father who was shot in the leg,” Silva said. “They were trying to stop the bleeding so I brought the boy downstairs into the garage.”

“He kept asking if mom and dad are going to come back soon,” she said of the diapered two-and-a-half year old, who she noted was wearing only one shoe and had on a sock covered in blood.

She cleaned the toddler’s cuts with a first-aid kit she had in the car, while trying to calm him down and telling him that “his dad was going to come back,” the paper said.

Silva said she gave the boy to someone who said he’d be taken to a hospital. Meanwhile, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Aiden’s maternal grandfather Michael Levberg said that Aiden had been seen “walking in the street.”

Pictures were taken of the little lost boy and posted on a neighborhood watch website, where Adrienne Rosenblatt, 71, saw it after escaping from the parade herself. She knew the whole family, and went to the Levbergs’ home to show them the photo and tell the grandparents where they could find their grandson.

“A neighbor passed by, she showed me the picture, it was Aiden,” Levberg said. “I picked him up at the [Highland Park] police station.”

He also confirmed his son-in-law’s heroism, saying, “He had Aiden under his body when he was shot.”

“They were crazy about their child,” he said. “They were planning two.”

Michael and his wife, Nina, had emigrated to Chicago from Russia with their only daughter, Irina, when she was a schoolchild.

According to a GoFundMe page that friends immediately set up, the Levbergs will now raise the little boy.

“Aiden will be cared for by his loving grandparents, Misha and Nina Levberg, and he will have a long road ahead to heal, find stability and ultimately navigate life as an orphan,” the page said in part. “He is surrounded by a community of friends and extended family that will embrace him with love and any means available to ensure he has everything he needs as he grows.”

By Wednesday morning, over $1.8 million had been raised, with donations coming from almost 40,000 people.

The post Jewish toddler loses both parents in Highland Park parade shooting appeared first on World Israel News.

A preschool teacher and a grandfather were the first two victims to be identified by authorities. 8-85

The post WATCH: What we know about Chicago shooting victims; woman was active in Jewish community appeared first on World Israel News.

Robert Crimo III was taken into custody Monday evening in Lake Forest, Illinois, about eight hours after a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade in the Highland Park suburb of Chicago.

The post WATCH: Footage of police capturing Highland Park shooter appeared first on World Israel News.

The uncle of Robert Crimo III spoke to FOX 32’s Dane Placko after his nephew was named as the person of interest in a deadly shooting at Chicago’s Independence Day parade on Monday.

The post WATCH: Uncle who lived with shooter apologizes and shares details about ‘quiet kid’ appeared first on World Israel News.

Fatalities Jacki Sundheim and Nicolas Toledo identified as Jewish.  

By World Israel News Staff

A local Chabad rabbi has said that he had kicked out the suspect behind the Highland Park shooting from his synagogue during the Jewish festival of Passover in April.

Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz, from The Central Avenue Synagogue, recognized the photo of 21-year-old Robert Crimo, the “person of interest” who was taken into police custody following an hours-long manhunt. Six people were killed and another 30 injured when a shots were fired from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade.

“We have an armed guard with a weapon sitting at the entrance, and I was not worried that he would continue into the synagogue hall,” Schanowitz was quoted by the Israel National News website as saying.

“But I went to him and demanded that he leave, because I saw that he was not from our community,” Schanowitz said of the tattooed suspect.

Around one-third of the Chicago suburb’s 30,000 residents are Jewish.

Two Jewish victims already identified

At least two of the six victims of the shooting in the largely Jewish Highland Park were Jews, a different local synagogue in the Chicago suburb said on Monday.

North Shore Congregation Israel in the Glencoe neighborhood told members in an email that congregants and staffer Jacki Sundheim was one of the fatalities.

“Jacki was a lifelong congregant of NSCI and a cherished member of NSCI’s staff team for decades,” the synagogue wrote about its b’nei mitzvah coordinator, Jacki Sundheim. “Jacki’s work, kindness and warmth touched us all.”

Sundheim was survived by her husband Bruce and daughter Leah.

The synagogue released an earlier statement saying: “This touches each of us deeply and personally; the grief, pain, and fear affect us all.”

Another Jewish victim was 76-year-old Nicolas Toledo, who was visiting from Mexico.  He was sitting along the parade route in his wheelchair when he was shot at least three times. His son and his granddaughter’s boyfriend were also shot.

Most of the other victims’ identities have yet to be released.

NorthShore University Health Center received 26 patients after the attack. All but one had gunshot wounds, said Dr. Brigham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness. Their ages ranged from 8 to 85, and Temple estimated that four or five were children.

The Israeli Consulate in the Midwest has been in close contact with the local Jewish community, Israel’s foreign ministry said.

“I am following the horrible news from Highland Park.” said Yinam Cohen, Israel’s Consul-General in Chicago tweeted on Monday. “Our hearts and prayers are with the members of the community. We thank the local authorities for their immediate response.”

Schanowitz said that there were other members of the Jewish community who were wounded in the shooting and are located in different hospitals. He spent hours in emergency room trying to comfort the injured while reciting the Shema prayer.

“We are trying to be with the families at this difficult time, and provide all possible assistance,” he said.

He stressed that it was incumbent on all synagogues and Chabad houses “to put a first-rate, armed guard in the doorway to prevent more tragedy.”

Schanowitz also provided shelter to four teenage boys who were manning a Chabad booth for laying tefillin.

Menachem Slavtitsky, the Chabad rabbi of the Israeli community in Chicago, expressed his shock over the shooting.

“Everyone is really shocked by the incident, it happened in a prestigious area, which is always very calm and safe,” he told Israel’s Channel 12 News.

“People turn to us with fear and worry, and we are here for them – to strengthen and encourage. We turn again to all Israelis in the Chicago area: do not hesitate to call at any time. We are by your side. We are confident that nothing will break our spirit and we will emerge stronger from it.”

Michala Sheinwitz, the wife of another local Chabad emissary, said she opened her house to passers-by to escape the carnage. “It was clear that it was dangerous to be outside so I invited them in,” she said.

“This is a very Jewish neighborhood. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, for example, there was no school here. There are a lot of Jews here,” she said.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A klezmer band was playing when the shooting began. Two Jews are among the dead victims.

By Associated Press and World Israel News

At least six people died, including two Jews, and 24 were wounded in a shooting at a July Fourth parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, and officers are searching for a suspect who likely fired on the festivities from a rooftop, police said Monday.

Highland Park Police Commander Chris O’Neill, the incident commander on scene, urged people to shelter in place as authorities search for the suspect, described as a white male wearing a white or blue T-shirt.

Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said at a news conference that the gunman apparently opened fire on parade-goers from a rooftop using a rifle that was recovered at the scene.

Covelli said police believe there was only one shooter and warned that he should still be considered armed and dangerous. He and O’Neill described the shooting as random.

Highland Park has a sizable Jewish community. A klezmer band was playing when the shooting began.

My video.. I was at #Highland Park parade.. Terrified people fleeing July 4th parade when shooting started. pic.twitter.com/DSe0NJOuem

— Lynn Sweet (@lynnsweet) July 4, 2022

“This morning at 10:14, our community was terrorized by an act of violence that has shaken us to our core,” Mayor Nancy Rotering said at the news conference. “Our hearts go out to the families of the victims at this devastating time. On a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we are instead mourning the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us.”

Hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fled the parade route after shots rang out, leaving their belongings behind. As of early afternoon, ominous signs of a joyous event suddenly turned to horror filled both sides of Central Street where the shooting occurred. Dozens of baby cartridges, some bearing American flags, abandoned children’s bikes, a helmet bedecked with images of Cinderella were left behind in their haste. Blankets, lawn chairs, coffees and water bottles were knocked over as people fled.

The Midwest Israeli Consulate in the Midwest is in contact with authorities and the Jewish community.

“A day of celebration has turned into a day of tragedy. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and all the American people. Today as always, Israel stands with our American friends.”

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