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L.A. Synagogue Shooting Not a Hate Crime

LAPD says, though shooter still at large

by
Allison Hoffman
October 30, 2009
Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Synagogue yesterday.(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Synagogue yesterday.(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Good news: police seem to have decided yesterday’s early-morning shooting at a Los Angeles synagogue wasn’t a hate crime. They’re not really sure what prompted it, and they definitely don’t know who did it, but the main thing, LAPD counterterrorism chief Mike Downing told the Los Angeles Times, is that the two victims weren’t shot on account of being Jewish, but because someone had a score to settle. Which means that the guy who told the paper that the neighborhood where the shooting happened is “like a small Israel” was more right than he probably realized.

Allison Hoffman is a senior editor at Tablet Magazine. Her Twitter feed is @allisont_dc.