A MAN who posted anti-Semitic and anti-cop rants online and had links to a black nationalist group is reportedly one of the rifle-wielding assailants in Tuesday’s deadly shootout at a kosher grocery store.
David Anderson and Francine Graham were identified on Wednesday by police sources to multiple outlets as the shooters who killed three civilians and a police officer during a lengthy firefight in a Jewish neighborhood of New Jersey.
Anderson had a connection to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, according to The New York Times.
Members believe they’re descendants of the ancient Israelites, however, the group is not officially recognized as part of the Jewish community, and some offshoots are described as overtly black supremacist and anti-Semitic.
“At the time of the incident yesterday, it was difficult to understand intent, and there’s still a lot of questions around that.
“But after reviewing the cameras on the Jersey City side, we do feel comfortable that it was a targeted attack on the Jewish kosher deli across the street here,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said during a news conference Wednesday.
“We could see the van moving through Jersey City streets slowly. The perpetrator stopped in front of there, calmly opened the door with two long rifles — him and the other perpetrator — and began firing from the street into the facility.”
Investigators reportedly continued pouring over evidence on Wednesday afternoon, including a “rambling” manifesto and a live pipe bomb that were both left in the duo’s vehicle, law police told The New York Times.
Graham was a former home health aide who met Anderson after an injury spurred her to quit her job, according to a neighbor who spoke with NBC New York.
The association turned her into a “dark person” who became militantly religious and who nearby residents heard chanting scripture from inside her condo, the neighbor said.
Anderson and Graham have not yet been officially identified by police as the killers.
Both were shot dead by cops after a back-and-forth firefight that locked down area schools and put Jewish communities in New Jersey and New York on high alert.
One of the responding police-detectives credited with neutralizing the murderous pair was identified late Tuesday as Joseph Kerik, the son of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
The elder Kerik was New York’s top cop near the end of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s tenure and became a high-profile figure, particularly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
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The younger Kerik, meanwhile, was one of a trio of cops who stormed the grocery store Tuesday and killed the suspects, the New York Post reported.
The famous father later tweeted he was at Jersey City Medical Center, where Joseph was being treated for bruises, according to the Post.
Kerik also tweeted to mourn the loss of Detective Joseph Seals, a 15-year veteran and father of five whose murder Tuesday afternoon touched off the bloody rampage.
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