Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

Jersey City Shooting: What We Know So Far

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It’s Thursday.

Weather: Sunny but chilly, with a high in the mid-30s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Dec. 25 (Christmas).

Nothing seemed unusual about the rental van that was navigating the streets of Jersey City, until the man and woman inside descended on a kosher market and unleashed a barrage of deadly gunfire.

In that instant, a bustling Hasidic neighborhood turned into a war zone. In the end, six people, including the assailants and a Jersey City police detective shot nearby, had been killed.

Investigators later determined that the carnage on Tuesday began with the shooting of the detective, Joe Seals, near a cemetery. The attack on the market appeared to be premeditated, the authorities said.

[Read more about the rampage at the market.]

Here’s what we know so far.

Five people, including the assailants, were killed at the market.

As the assailants and the police exchanged gunfire at the JC Kosher Supermarket, officers descended on the van. Officials later said it contained a pipe bomb and a manifesto-style note.

Inside the market, three were slain. They were identified as Mindel Ferencz, 33, who ran the market with her husband; Moshe Deutsch, 24, a rabbinical student; and Miguel Douglas Rodriguez, 49, who worked at the store.

One suspect was linked to the Black Hebrew Israelites.

The authorities identified David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, as the attackers.

Mr. Anderson had expressed anti-Semitic and anti-police views online, and investigators said they believed that the attack on the market was fueled by those sentiments.

According to an official, Mr. Anderson appeared to have a connection to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The movement has no connection with mainstream Judaism.

He and Ms. Graham are also suspects in a recent killing in Bayonne, N.J., according to officials.

Surveillance footage showed that the market was targeted.

The store was part of a budding ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Jersey City’s mayor, Steven Fulop, said the footage showed the attackers driving slowly toward the market.

“The perpetrators stopped in front of there and calmly opened the door with two long rifles,” he said.

In New York City, a unit will target far-right and extremist hate groups.

Across the Hudson River, Mayor de Blasio announced yesterday that the New York Police Department had formed a new unit within its intelligence division, known as Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism.

The unit, which began operating this month, is primarily tasked with investigating terror threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations.

The Jersey City incident was a “violent, anti-Semitic hate crime,” Mr. de Blasio said.

The detective was a longtime police veteran.

Detective Seals, a 15-year law enforcement veteran and father of five, had recently been assigned to a task force focused on reducing gun violence in Jersey City, according to the city’s Police Department.

“He always wanted to be a cop,” the detective’s mother, Deborah Ann Perruzza, told The Times.

On Tuesday, Detective Seals had approached the assailants’ van near a cemetery, a law enforcement official said. The assailants shot him twice, Ms. Perruzza said, including once in the head.

Want more news? Check out our full coverage.

The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

A man shopping for a used car in Queens was crushed to death by the vehicle he was looking to buy. [New York Daily News]

City Hall will increase scrutiny of police officers’ personal driving records before issuing parking placards, according to officials. [Streetsblog]

Slush caused the recent slowdowns on the 7 train, when the new $600 million signal system was prevented from working. [Gothamist]

Coming up today

A discussion celebrates the pioneering art dealer Edith Halpert at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [$10]

“The Art of Winning Favor,” a talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, explores how political support is amassed. 6:30 p.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]

The Roots n’ Ruckus Fest at the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn includes multiple performers on two stages. 8 p.m. [Free]

— Melissa Guerrero

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: The top New York dishes of 2019

Pete Wells, The Times’s restaurant critic, writes:

This annual list of the top 10 dishes in New York is an exercise in selective memory: The trick is to remember every impressive snack, sandwich, pastry, main course and cocktail I ate over the past year without ever thinking about how much food it all adds up to.

It helps to eliminate, right off the bat, anything I consumed in a restaurant that turned out to be one of my favorites of the year, and to focus instead on the runners-up. This allows me to shine some light on twice as many establishments while letting me imagine that this is all there was — just 10 things, each a perfect example of its type or of some new, previously unknown type, so intensely satisfying that maybe I didn’t even finish it, although of course I did.

Find all of the dishes on the list here. For now, let these whet your appetite:

The regular slice and the Sicilian slice at F & F Pizzeria in Brooklyn: Both the regular slice (with or without cheese) and the Sicilian (always with cheese) are remarkable: firm underneath, extremely light in the middle, fragrant on top with tomato and excellent olive oil.

The pasteles at the Freakin Rican in Queens: Unwrap the banana leaf and you’ve opened one of the gifts of Puerto Rican cuisine, a soft and sweet pulp of plantains, taro and pumpkin, with a savory core of pork stewed with green olives and red peppers.

The Gruyère fritters at Crown Shy in Manhattan: These snacks are essentially warm churros filled with cayenne-laced cheese sauce.

It’s Thursday — dig in.

Metropolitan Diary: Wise words

Dear Diary:

“Ninety-seventh and Third. Don’t forget. You are to always remember intersections; addresses are not as important in New York City.”

That was the advice I got from the first doorman I ever met as I wrapped up my first week in New York in 2009.

“Don’t go by the color, don’t call it subway. What do you mean by subway? It is a train and it can only go uptown or downtown, unless you are taking a shuttle one. Do you understand what I’m saying? Of course not. Just go around the corner over there and get on the uptown 6 train, not the 4 or the 5. Go, go.”

That was what I was told by an older woman who told me what I needed to know to get home from Union Square on an arctic winter afternoon.

All of my gratitude to the many doormen and busy pedestrians I have ever encountered. I carry your words with me still.

— Karen Silva

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