An Asian man has been charged with hate crimes after being arrested for shooting two Jewish men outside two separate synagogues in Los Angeles’ Pico-Robertson neighborhood last week.
The first incident took place near the intersection of Shenandoah and Cashio Streets before 10 a.m. on Wednesday. The victim, who had just left a synagogue, was opening the driver’s side door of his car when he was shot in the back, according to CNN.
The second incident occurred near Pickford and South Bedford Streets at around 8 a.m. on Thursday. The victim, who had also just left a synagogue, reportedly made eye contact with a man in a “dark colored Sedan” and heard three gunshots before realizing that he was hit in the arm.
A Los Angeles police officer who responded to the second shooting saw an Asian man driving a Honda Civic. She took a picture of the vehicle, reviewed security footage and determined a match, as per the Los Angeles Times.
Police then looked into the vehicle’s license plate and traced it to 28-year-old Jamie Tran.
They began to track him using his cell phone location, which revealed that he went to Palm Springs.
Cathedral City police then received a report of a shooting at around 5:45 p.m. They found Tran in the driver’s seat of his car and arrested him. They also recovered an AK-style rifle and a .380-caliber handgun, according to reports.
Tran, formerly of Riverside, told police that he had “searched for a ‘kosher’ market” on Yelp. He then went to the market and “selected his victims because of their ‘head gear.’”
The two victims were reported to be Orthodox Jews who had just finished their morning prayers, ABC News reported. Both survived and are now in stable condition, according to the police.
The shootings add to a rising number of anti-Jewish hate crimes in Los Angeles, which saw a 24% increase in 2022 compared to the previous year.
A similar trend is seen nationwide, with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reporting 2,717 attacks in 2021, up 34% from the previous year.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has vowed to fight antisemitism “vigorously.” She called the latest shootings “absolutely unacceptable.”
“I want to be very clear: anti-Semitism and hate crimes have no place in our city or our country. Those who engage in either will be caught and held fully accountable,” she said.
If convicted, Tran, a former dental student, could face life imprisonment without parole for each shooting. He will return to court on Feb. 28 for a separate 2022 case of bringing a gun to a college.
