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The man who allegedly shot two Orthodox Jewish men in separate incidents in Los Angeles this week had a history of making anti-Semitic threats and told former classmates he wanted to kill them.
Jaime Tran, 28, has been charged with federal hate crimes and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the attacks, US Attorney Martin Estrada said during a press conference in Los Angeles on Friday.
“Over the past few days, our community has experienced two horrific acts,” Estrada said. “An individually motivated by antisemitism and hatred for people in the Jewish community committed to tremendously horrible acts, targeting individuals because of their Jewish faith.
“Targeting two victims as they departed from religious services at two different synagogues in the Beverlywood neighborhood. This type of criminal conduct is completely unacceptable.”
Officials said the first incident took place before 9:45 a.m. Wednesday when Tran allegedly drove up in his Honda Civic and shot a 47-year-old man as he was getting into his car, which was parked across from a synagogue at the 1400 block of Shenandoah Street.
The man, wearing a traditional yarmulke and black jacket, was shot in the right side of his back, according to the federal criminal complaint that was unsealed Friday.
The second attack occurred around 8:30 a.
