Were 50 Jewish children the target of the Jersey City attackers? - Sara Rubenstein

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by Sara Rubenstein

The Jersey City mayor tweets that he believes that the attackers intended to kill the 50 children in the yeshivah next to the store.

scene of Jersey City shooting                                                                                                                                     Reuters

The mayor of Jersey City, Steven Fulop, wrote on Twitter on Friday that he believes that as more information is discovered about the shooting attack last week in the city, it will become clear that the attackers' target were the 50 children in the yeshiva attached to the store.

"My opinion is that as more information comes out, it’ll become increasingly clear that the target was the 50 children at the yeshiva attached to that store," Fulop wrote. "We will never know 100% but the doorway to the yeshiva was three feet away and it seems he goes in that direction first."

"This is a horrible tragedy but even in so much darkness with lives lost there is some light in that without question had the bravery/quick response of the police not trapped them in the store this could have been much much worse," Fulop added.

In light of the fact that the attack was found to have been pre-meditated and the large amount of firearms the attackers brought in the store, it is logical that the attackers were planning on killing a large amount of people. The quick police response, forcing the attackers to engage in a gun battle until their deaths, may have prevented a massacre of small children.

Next door to the JC kosher supermarket, where the attackers entered and killed three people, is the local elementary school for boys for the Satmar community with around 50 children. Like all local schools, the school was put on lockdown during the attack but unlike the other schools, the attack was perpetrated mere feet away from their desks.

Police recovered five firearms belonging to the two shooters, including four inside the JC kosher supermarket and one inside the U-haul the suspects drove.

The weapons included an AR-15 rifle, a Mossburg 12-gauge shotgun, a nine millimeter Ruger, and a nine-millimeter Glock 17 inside the store and a 22-caliber Ruger mark four with a homemade silencer inside the U-haul.

The attackers killed 33-year-old Mrs. Leah Mindel Ferencz of Jersey City, who together with her husband owned the grocery store that was the site of the attack, Moshe Hersh Deutsch, 24, and Miguel Douglas Rodriguez, 49, who worked in the grocery store.

A VINnews report on Friday said that Rodriguez is remembered as a hero since his last selfless act saved someone else's life at the expense of his own. He left behind a wife and an 11-year-old daughter.

Rodriguez, originally from Ecuador, had just returned from a vacation and began his shift that Tuesday at noon. A half-hour later, Chaim Deutsch and his 24-year-old cousin Moshe Deutch entered the store, only to hear gunshots moments later. Moshe Deutch was gunned down. Chaim Deutch was wounded but was able to run to the back door where Rodriguez was steps ahead of him. Rodriguez held the door for Deutch to leave before him, which cost him his life.

The attackers also killed Jersey City Police Detective Joseph Seals at a nearby cemetery before driving to the store.


Sara Rubenstein

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/273145

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