Last week’s deadly kosher market attack in New Jersey which left six people dead including a police detective is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism that was motivated by anti-police sentiment and anti-Semitism.
One of the shooters, 47-year-old David Anderson, who made anti-Semitic and anti-police comments online, was later confirmed by police to be a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement – a fringe group of Black Americans who believe that they are the true decedents of the biblical Israelites.
“We believe the suspects held views that reflected hatred of the Jewish people, as well as a hatred of law enforcement,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said, adding that “The evidence points towards acts of hate.”
Investigators are also looking into a note found in the stolen U-Haul truck that Anderson, and his partner, Francine Graham, had driven to the kosher market. The note is said to have contained anti-Semitic and anti-police writing.
Authorities are also looking into posts made by Anderson and Graham on social media to help piece together a more detailed picture of what motivated them to carry out the massacre.
Democratic Michigan Rep. and member of the so-called ‘Squad’, Rashida Tlaib, after blaming the shooting on white supremacists, has faced significant backlash. After the news of the shooting initially broke, Tlaib erroneously identified the shooters as white supremacists in a tweet that she’s since deleted.
“This is heartbreaking,” Tlaib tweeted. “White supremacy kills.”
Tlaib isn’t the only prominent left-winger to incorrectly paint the kosher market killers as white supremacists. Joy Behar, the co-host of the popular talk show “The View”, suggested during a conversation with the former New Jersey Governor Chris Chirstie that the shooters were white nationalists.
“It’s a really terrible thing, and we need to pray for this detective’s family,” Christie said to Behar while referring Detective Joseph Seals – the officer who was killed during the shooting. “Those five children lost their dad,” he added.
“Yes,” Behar replied. “You will concede that these natioanals, these white nationalists have been let out of their holes.”