Black Hebrew Israelite adherents David Anderson and Francine Graham alleged Jersey City shooting suspects leave behind handwritten note that compelled them to action.
One of the ‘Black Hebrew Israelite’ killers who targeted a Jewish grocery store in Jersey City left behind a handwritten note that said: ‘I do this because my creator makes me do this and I hate who he hates,’ law enforcement sources revealed.
The message was found inside the stolen U-Haul van David Anderson, 47, and his girlfriend Francine Graham, 50, on Tuesday drove to the Jersey City Kosher Supermarket, where they fatally gunned down three people.
Sources have identified the pair as adherents of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a fringe religious movement not associated with mainstream Judaism that openly expresses hostility towards to Jews. The entity has been labeled a hate group by experts who track extremists in the US.
The entity- a century-old theology that has split into dozens of semiautonomous groups, believe, in general, that the chosen ones are black, Native American and Hispanic people, but not white people.
The discovery of the handwritten note follows Anderson having posted anti-Jewish and anti-police messages to social media prior to Tuesday afternoon’s attack the nytimes reports.
The duo’s van was linked to the killing of an Uber driver in Bayonne, officials have said.
When Jersey City Detective Joseph Seals tried to question the pair about the vehicle earlier Tuesday, they fatally shot him in the head, sources have said.
They then drove to the nearby grocery store, where they were captured on CCTV footage rolling up in their van and firing using two long rifles, said Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.
Jersey City officials have not condemned the shooting as a hate crime or anti-Semitic but did say that it was ‘targeted.’
A suspect had links to the Black Hebrew Israelite group, which despite its name, is an antisemitic hate group. There was a manifesto of sorts and a pipe bomb in his van.
This is just as bad as a white supremacist attack, but will get less attention.https://t.co/feM7GcZTZj— Juliet Moses (@JulietMosesNZ) December 11, 2019
The Black Hebrew Israelite movement is complex. Let us not take them as a uniform group. Let us not take this as a chance to raise fear against Jews of color in mainstream Jewish spaces. https://t.co/qTDT0A0Lr6
— Ruth Abusch-Magder (@RabbiRuth) December 11, 2019
