A 39-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was shot as he walked to synagogue on Saturday in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighbourhood, home to one of the city’s largest Orthodox Jewish populations, Lonnie Nasatir, president of the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, told JNS on Sunday.
The Chicago Police Department told JNS that detectives are still investigating the incident, and it could not confirm that the victim was Jewish.
Kevin Bruno, deputy chief of the Chicago Police Department detectives bureau, said during a Saturday press conference that at about 9:35 am, a 39-year-old man was walking in West Rogers Park “when an armed offender approached from behind and fired shots at the victim, striking the victim in the shoulder.”
“Responding officers responded to the scene, and as they were on the scene, at about 9:55, the offender re-emerged from an alley and fired shots at the officers and at the responding paramedics,” including striking an ambulance, Bruno said.
“Over the next two-and-a-half minutes, the offender emerged from various locations and exchanged shots with the officers,” he added.
Officers shot the 23-year-old gunman “multiple times” in a different location, less than a quarter of a mile away, and recovered the shooter’s gun and took the shooter, who is in critical condition, to a hospital, according to Bruno.
The 39-year-old, whom neighbours initially came out to help in the street, was treated at a hospital and released, Bruno added. “It’s great to see the community step in and offer assistance,” he said, at the press conference.
Asked if the victim was wearing anything that identified him as an Orthodox Jew, Bruno said that “the victim is from the community.”
The neighbourhood is a “heavily-concentrated Jewish area, however it’s also home to a lot of different ethnicities and religions, and it’s a multicultural part of our city,” Nasatir told JNS. “Every block has different types of restaurants, and all the rest, and by and large, it’s a beautiful mosaic of our country.”
“It’s, for all intents and purposes, a nice place to raise a family, but, of course, we’ve seen an uptick in antisemitic incidents since the 7th” of October, he said, “and we’ve paid special attention, in terms of our security team at JUF, to make sure that we have our contacts at Chicago Police firmly in place.”
“They have been nothing but very attentive,” he said of Chicago police, “always, but especially in the last year, we have gotten real special attention to make sure, because tensions are high.”
“This incident obviously was jarring, in the sense that it was a guy walking to shul on a Saturday morning, and from out of nowhere comes this person who, without provocation, from what I’m to understand, came behind him and shot him,” Nasatir said.
There are some 15-20 synagogues in that area, and he is unsure which one the victim was walking to, Nasatir added.
“Assuming the investigation is complete and that there is evidence to indicate that he was targeted because he was Jewish, then I have all confidence that law enforcement—whether it be the state’s or the feds—will prosecute this as a hate crime for sure, and we would expect nothing difference,” said Nasatir, a former Anti-Defamation League regional director of nearly 20 years and former attorney in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The Chicago Police Department wants to get the investigation right and to get all of the evidence of what was said, “both in terms of the encounter and what happened afterward,” Nasatir said. “All of that goes into their decision to prosecute as a hate crime, and then reveal it to the public. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next day or two they came out with their conclusions from the investigation.”
Footage purporting to be from a doorbell camera that circulated on social media is being interpreted, by some, to indicate that the shooter said “Allahu Akhbar.”
“I have heard that, but it has yet to be substantiated by my law enforcement contacts,” Nasatir said. “And I don’t know if it was said at the time of the crime against the gentleman, or if it was said during the gunfire between him and the police.”
“That’s why we have to defer to the investigators because saying ‘Allahu Akhbar’ as he proceeds to pump bullets into the victim is different than saying ‘Allahu Akhbar’ when he may fear his impending death in a crossfire battle with law enforcement,” he added. “That’s why we let the professionals do their jobs.”
If the police investigation “comes back that it was religiously motivated, I fully expect Chicago Police, in coordination with the state attorney’s office, to prosecute as a hate crime,” Nasatir told JNS.
Neighbours interceding to help the Jewish victim “shows the spirit of that community. It is a tight-knit community, by and large, and they do have each other’s backs,” Nasatir said. “If it is a Jewish person targeted, if it’s a Pakistani person—there’s a Pakistani population—I think all communities rally behind each other, especially when it comes to religiously-motivated crimes, which surely this indicates that it may be.”
“It’s a neighbourhood that’s been around Chicago for a long time,” he added. “It has a storied past, and it’s always had a Jewish connection, and now it has this very diverse feel as well, where people from all over the world congregate.”
“It’s an impressive thing to just walk down the street and be able to see all of these different people really engaging with one another,” he said. “It’s a beautiful American story.”
Additional patrols
In the last 24 hours, Chicago Police assured the JUF that they’re putting even more patrols out in the neighbourhood. “It just sends the message to the community that they’re on it and they have their back and they’re being very mindful of what they’ve gone through for the last 24 to 48 hours,” Nasatir told JNS.
“It’s an important thing, whenever there’s a potential hate crime in a community, for law enforcement to overdo it almost with their presence and their recognition that the community has been traumatised,” he added.
Looking forward, Nasatir told JNS that he is optimistic that the worst is behind Chicago Jews when it comes to antisemitism. “We have seen countless instances where good people have stood up for our community,” he said. “Could there be more? Yes.” But “half of the battle is we can’t let antisemitism normalise.”
He is also encouraged by the press covering Jew-hatred, given “it is an aberration” that “is antithetical to American value systems.”
Brandon Johnson—the Chicago mayor, who broke a tie at the Chicago City Council earlier this year and voted in favour of a resolution demanding a ceasefire without mentioning Hamas—hadn’t commented about the shooting of the Jewish man publicly at press time.
Nasatir told JNS the Chicago Police, and superintendent Larry Snelling in particular, “have been tremendous in the last year.”
“When we need something, they’re there. When we did our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration back in the spring, they said, ‘What do you need? We got you,'” Nasatir said. “They’ve been nothing but responsive and receptive, and that is an arm of the city. At the end of the day, the superintendent does work for the mayor.”
“I have really very little complaints in terms of what we have seen from top brass at Chicago Police in the last year, and for that matter, in my 20 years of doing work in the community,” he added. “Chicago Police has always had our back and is really supportive.”
Nasatir told JNS that he has taken the mayor on publicly.
“I felt it was shameful the way that he pushed an agenda in the ceasefire resolution, which made no mentions of hostages or Hamas, which I thought was an unfair and misguided resolution,” he said. “We’ve had issues with some of the wording he’s used in the last year, in terms of calling what’s happening in Gaza a ‘genocide.'”
“I think it’s a completely inaccurate and offensive description of what’s happening in Gaza, so we’ve had our issues, and he knows that we’ve had our issues,” Nasatir said. “We are hoping that he is a mayor for all Chicagoans.”
“Actions speak louder than words, and we are still waiting,” he added.
Debra Silverstein, alderman of Chicago’s 50th Ward, which includes West Rogers Park, wrote that “thankfully, the victim is in stable condition and is recovering at home.”
“I visited him this afternoon, and he is doing well. I pray for his speedy recovery,” added Silverstein, who is Jewish. “The shooting happened on Shabbat following the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. I spoke with Superintendent Larry Snelling, who assured me that there is no more known threat and has committed the full support of the Chicago Police Department to ensuring the safety of our community.”