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    • Chicago police investigate motive for murder of Jewish man walking to synagogue
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    Chicago police investigate motive for murder of Jewish man walking to synagogue

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    Chicago Jewish community leaders called for hate crime charges to be filed against a suspect accused of shooting a man walking to a synagogue.

    Police said Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, of Chicago, approached a 39-year-old man wearing a kippah on his head and shot him in the shoulder Saturday morning in the West Roger’s Park neighborhood, north from the city center.

    When officers and paramedics arrived at the scene, Abdallahi fired multiple shots at them, hitting only one ambulance, police said. The officers responded and beat Abdallahi before they rendered aid; He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remained until Monday. The victim’s injuries are not life-threatening and he has been released from a local hospital, police said.

    The Chicago Police Department on Monday announced charges against Abdallahi, including six counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm toward a police officer or firefighter and one count of aggravated assault by shooting of firearm.

    Larry Snelling, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, said Monday that detectives were still investigating a possible motive as well as Abdallahi’s background. He asked the community for patience as the investigation progresses.

    “We understand the concern around this incident and are doing everything we can to ensure the community is safe,” he said. “There has been a lot of information circulating about the shooting and we ask that the public not be too quick to judge this situation.”

    Disappointed Jewish leaders have not pressed hate crime charges

    Councilwoman Debra Silverstein, a Chicago City Council member who attends the same synagogue as the victim, said she would like to see hate crime charges filed, adding that the incident “has shaken my community to its core.”

    “I am concerned about the lack of hate crime charges in this case,” Silverstein said at a news conference Monday. “Although the motive is still under investigation, the community is legitimately concerned given the nature and timing of the attack.”

    Rabbi Shlomo Soroka, director of government affairs for the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America, said he was disappointed that hate crime charges were not filed, but said he understands the investigation is ongoing and possible. file additional charges later.

    “We have just experienced an act of violence that strikes at the heart of our community family,” he said Tuesday at a news conference at a Chicago-area synagogue.

    “As a community, we are afraid,” Rabbi Levi Mostofsky, executive director of the Rabbinical Council of Chicago, said at the same event. “When a visibly Jewish individual in an otherwise placid neighborhood is shot unprovoked on his way to synagogue, we are terrified.”

    Shooting occurs amid rise in anti-Jewish incidents

    In the year since the October 7 attack on Israel, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, including harassment, vandalism and physical assault, have increased, according to the Anti-Defamation League. There has also been an increase in reports of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

    The increase in such incidents has put all levels of Police agencies on high alert while federal authorities monitor threats and local officials reinforce surveillance and security measures at mosques and synagogues.

    Immediately after October 7, FBI Director Christopher Wray. He said the agency’s “most immediate concern” was violent extremists, individuals or small groups, who could be “inspired by events in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives.”

    Snelling said the Chicago Police Department has been “paying close attention” to places of worship for some time.

    “We are aware of what is happening in the world right now and we know how that can affect neighborhoods, communities and people of faith,” he said.

    Sakege
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