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WEST RIDGE — The man charged with shooting an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue was ordered detained at a hearing Tuesday as West Ridge and Jewish community officials call for hate crime charges in the case.
Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, is charged with six counts of attempted murder in connection to the Saturday morning shooting in the 2600 block of West Farwell Avenue, which ended in Abdallahi being wounded in a shoot-out with police, Supt. Larry Snelling said at a Monday press conference.
Abdallahi is believed to have shot the 39-year-old man in his shoulder after approaching him “without saying a word,” Snelling said. The victim is Orthodox Jewish and was walking to synagogue while wearing attire making him “identifiable as a Jewish person,” including a yarmulke, Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) said.
When police and paramedics responded to the scene, Abdallahi fired shots at them from “various locations” while shouting something police officials said Monday they could not currently share as evidence. An ambulance was hit by gunfire — and police returned shots during a prolonged gun battle, hitting Abdallahi “multiple times,” Snelling said.
Abdallahi, who lives on the Far South Side, is in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, public defenders said at a detention hearing Tuesday. The presiding judge ordered Abdallahi to be detained once he’s released from the hospital.
Abdallahi is also facing seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated battery. His next court date is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 7. He appears to have no prior criminal history.
Silverstein spoke to the victim, who is “doing OK and spirits are good” as he goes “back and forth to doctors,” she said. The alderwoman attends the same synagogue as the victim, she said.
Prominent Jewish officials, including Silverstein, are pushing for Abdallahi to be charged with hate crimes.
Silverstein would have liked to see hate crime charges filed “yesterday,” she said. West Ridge on the Far North Side is home to the city’s largest Orthodox Jewish community, Silverstein said.
“The charges filed against the suspect are a good start,” according to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League’s Midwest branch. “Saturday’s crime feels like a hate crime regardless of where the investigation lands. Chicago’s Jewish community has been rocked.”
“We’re all very anxious,” Silverstein said in an interview. “Everybody is pretty shaken up, and we were disappointed there aren’t more hate crime charges. I would like to let people do their job and get more information.”
Orthodox Jewish community officials gathered at a press conference Tuesday to call for hate crime charges, saying the West Ridge shooting appears to stand apart from typical cases of gun violence in Chicago. The community has been “terrorized” by the attack and subsequent police shoot-out, Rabbi Levi Mostofsky, executive director of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, said at the press conference, according to the Sun-Times.
Detectives are “continuing to investigate the motive” of the shooter, but haven’t been able to interview him yet while he recovers in the hospital, Snelling said Monday.
The West Ridge shooting comes amid an uptick in antisemitic incidents locally and nationally.
Antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes have been on the rise since Hamas’ attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, according to the Associated Press. Hamas kidnapped about 240 people during the attack, and more than 60 hostages are believed to remain in captivity, according to Israeli authorities. More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s responding war effort, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
In 2023, the Police Department reported 302 hate crimes, a 47 percent increase from 2022.
In July, the City Council passed an ordinance that would impose hefty fines on people caught “hate littering” after a series of hate speech incidents on the North Side.
They included antisemitic graffiti found at Nettlehorst School in Lakeview; over 80 plastic bags containing antisemitic flyers and an unknown substance found in Lincoln Park; and dozens of antisemitic signs placed outside the Lincoln Park homes of residents with Jewish names.
Last October, following Hamas’ attack, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in his suburban Chicago home by his landlord in what police called a hate crime, according to CNN.
Nabala Cafe, a Palestinian-owned cafe in Uptown, had its window bearing a Palestinian flag smashed Friday for the second time since September, prompting neighbors to raise over $18,000 to support the business.
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