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‘Planned attack’ of Orthodox man in Chicago, prosecutor says

The Cook County, Ill., prosecutor’s office said Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi researched Jewish targets and had pro-Hamas material on his phone.

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A gavel. Credit: Pixabay.

Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, who allegedly shot an Orthodox man as he walked to synagogue on Shabbat in Chicago last month, used his cellphone to search for synagogues and Jewish community centers to target, Fox News reported.

Abdallahi, who is being investigated for hate-crime and terror charges, also had more than 100 “antisemitic and pro-Hamas” images and videos on his phone, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, citing police. Officers found the suspect’s phone in his car after he allegedly engaged in a two-and-a-half-minute shootout with them.

In Abdallahi’s first court appearance, prosecutors stated that the suspect’s cell phone data showed that the shooting was premeditated.

“This was not anything but a planned attack,” Anne McCord Rodgers, the assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, Ill., said, per the Sun-Times. “An attempted assassination of these people.”

“This was a calculated plan, on a public street,” she added, “and an attempted slaughter of that person and law enforcement officers.”

Prosecutors said Abdallahi used his phone to map a synagogue one block from where the shooting took place and another synagogue in Hyde Park.

Two weeks prior, his Google search history included “Jewish Community Center” and a gun store in suburban Lyons, according to prosecutors.

An immigrant from Mauritania, Abdallahi had lived in the United States for “at least two years” and worked at an Amazon warehouse, according to Josh Thigpen, the assistant public defender, per the Sun-Times.

“In this political environment, he may be as reliable a supporter as possible that the Democratic caucus would sign off on for the position,” political science scholar Dan Schnur told JNS.
“Anyone who attempts to pose a threat or attack Israel will face devastating consequences,” said Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the global body.
“For the love of God, if Israel is not capable of creating an investigation committee, then I think it is suitable and appropriate that the good people of the United States, the people in Congress, do provide us the answers that we’re looking for,” Ruby Chen said.
“Not even the Wikimedia Foundation knows who any of the editors are on contentious topics,” Daniel Kelley of the Anti-Defamation League told JNS.