The FBI is reportedly investigating a shot through the window of a synagogue in Evansville, Indiana.
Adath B’Nai Israel Temple’s office manager discovered a shot through a classroom window on Monday afternoon, the Evansville Courier & Press reported, steps away from a playground.
“Someone had to walk into a children’s playground, then look into a classroom and then fire some sort of weapon,” Rabbi Gary Mazotold told the paper. “It was to inflict damage, but I think more importantly, (the person) tried to inflict fear.”
“We’re in this climate now where acts of hate are happening everywhere,” he said.
The Evansville Police Department and the FBI were investigating the incident, the paper reported. WFIE reported, citing unnamed FBI officials, that the incident would most likely be ruled a hate crime. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Times of Israel also reported that the FBI was investigating the incident.
The FBI has not immediately responded to TPM’s request to comment on any potential investigation.
The incident comes on the heels of a wave of anti-Semitic and otherwise xenophobic incidents nationwide. Hundreds of gravestones have been toppled at two separate cemeteries in recent weeks, and more than a hundred Jewish Community Centers have been evacuated due to bomb threats.
One Indian man was killed, and two more people were injured in a shooting in Olathe, Kansas last Thursday.
The suspect allegedly shouted “get out of my country” before opening fire and later told a bartender he had shot people he described as Iranian.
“The goal was to make us afraid, but we’re not going to let fear consume us,” Mazo told the Evansville Courier & Press of the shot through the synagogue’s window. “We’ll stand up to fear, we’ll stand up to hatred and we’ll stand together. We know this is not representative of our community. We know that we live in a community that supports each other.”
He’s certainly “bringing the country together.”
Apparently we’re going directly to step #3.
There’s a terrorist attack for you, Mr. “President.”
Bad guy with a gun? Or good guy with a gun? Or crazy guy with a gun? So hard to distinguish these days.
Obviously the work of a far left wing violent pothead
Monday, the local JCC (literally) adjacent to my little boy’s public school received another bomb threat, and yesterday, the principal had to send another message to anxious families.
These are attacks on children! And somebody’s going to get killed. I don’t want my school – or anyone else’s – to become the next Sandy Hook.
Trump put a neo-Nazi on the National Security Council, and appointed a White House advisor who wore an Axis uniform and medal to his Inaugural Ball.
Any American who supports this Nazi coddler urinates on the grave of every single warrior who sacrificed life and limb to make the world safe from fascism – despite Trump’s shameful and transparent attempt to cash in on a grief-stricken widow’s suffering last night.
Let history mark that 2017 was the year that “Republican” became a synonym for “un-American”.