Damian Dovarganes/AP
The suspect charged with hate crimes after he allegedly shot two different Jewish men earlier this week had a history of sending violent, antisemitic messages, according to court records filed on Friday.
On Friday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced two federal hate crimes charges against Jaime Tran, 28, for his alleged involvement in the shootings. The victims Tran targeted were Jewish men leaving religious services, authorities claimed. Both incidents took place in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, an area with a large Jewish population where people walk to prayer services at their local synagogues multiple times a day.
Tran allegedly fired a handgun at one man on Feb. 15, hitting him the lower back, and shot a second victim on Feb. 16, hitting him in the arm. Both survived. According to an FBI affidavit filed Friday, Tran told police he had carried out the shootings. He said he searched for a “kosher” market on Yelp before driving to the area, where he said he identified the victims as Jewish by their “head gear.” Both men were wearing black jackets and head coverings, the affidavit states.
“When antisemitism crawls out of the shadows, make no mistake,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at the press conference. “Angelenos from every community stand united to stamp it out and ensure that justice is served because antisemitism has no place in Los Angeles and no place in our country.”
The shootings appear to be an escalation in antisemitic behavior by Tran. In late 2022, the affidavit states, Tran sent multiple antisemitic texts and emails to his former classmates in a dental school. According to one former classmate, per the statement, Tran had been kicked out of the program in 2018. That classmate, identified only by the initials M.N.H., is Jewish and allegedly received many threatening calls, voicemails, and texts from Tran, according to the affidavit. Texts included hateful messages like “FUCK YOU JEW. Just kill yourself tonight you fucking Jew. I want you dead, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew,” and “Burn in an oven chamber you bitch Jew,” allegedly accompanied by a picture of a gas chamber.
Tran also allegedly sent emails to dozens of former classmates in November and December of 2022 making hateful comments about Jewish people and referencing the Covid-19 pandemic, the affidavit said. One email included a picture of a flier that read, “EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THE COVID AGENDA IS JEWISH.”
Although Tran used a handgun on the two victims this week, when police arrested him, he had an AK-style rifle with him, the court filing stated. On Thursday evening, a witness called the Cathedral City Police Department to report hearing a shot fired and spotting a man with a gun in the area, more than an hour away from the scene of the earlier shootings, according to court records.
When authorities arrived, they found Tran beside his vehicle, and on his driver’s side seat they recovered an AK-style rifle along with a .380-caliber handgun. The handgun was consistent with the firearm believed to have been used in the two recent shootings, based on shell casings left at the scene. At the scene of the arrest, officers also found a shell casing consistent with having been discharged from an AK-style rifle.
Earlier on Thursday, before the arrest, police had first announced they were investigating two potentially connected shootings in the Jewish community in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. The first had occurred Wednesday around 10:00 am on Shenandoah Street, and the second happened less than 24 hours later on Thursday around 8:30 am and just one block away from the first, on South Bedford Street, according to the police statement. That announcement described the suspect as “a male Asian with a mustache and goatee, driving a possible white compact vehicle,” and urged the public to call in with tips.
Following the arrest, Jewish leaders called out the power of social media in spreading antisemitic hatred. Rabbi Noah Farkas, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, compares social media’s reach to “rocket fuel” when it comes to normalizing hate speech. “When a celebrity who has more Instagram followers than there are Jews in the world is able to call out Jews using antisemitic tropes, it just continues to normalize hate speech,” Farkas tells Rolling Stone, referring to Kanye West, whose antisemitic rants late last year inspired vandalism, harassment and intimidation in West’s name, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Center shared similar sentiments at Friday’s press conference where the charges were announced. Cooper said it is “long past due that the TikToks, the Twitters and all the social media giants stop monetizing hate. The bigots out there against all communities are leveraging these powerful marketing tools in order to spread this hate.”
Farkas says the Jewish community in Los Angeles welcomes the federal charges, but that people feel scared and angry due to recent antisemitic incidents. “People are at their wits’ end, feeling afraid, feeling insecure or unsure if they should walk down the street,” he says. “And now also, [there’s] anger. This newer emotion is rising because, for a long time, the Jewish community has been sounding the alarm, saying that hate speech leads to hate crime.”
Tran was scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday afternoon, where he would be informed of his charges and a discussion would take place about whether he would be released on bond. He is not expected to enter a plea until an indictment is filed. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Rolling Stone could not immediately determine whether Tran has an attorney at this time.
