Man is sentenced to 35 years for shooting 2 Jewish men as they left Los Angeles synagogues

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison for shooting and wounding two Jewish men as they left synagogues in Los Angeles last year, federal prosecutors said.

Jaime Tran, 30, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.

The February 2023 shootings had raised fears among the city’s Jewish community after officials said the victims were targeted because they wore clothing that identified their faith, including black coats and head coverings. Both men survived.

Tran told law enforcement that he looked online for a “kosher market” and decided to shoot someone nearby, according to an FBI affidavit.

Tran had a “history of antisemitic and threatening conduct,” the affidavit said, citing a review of emails, text messages and unspecified reports.

“Targeting people for death based solely on their religious and ethnic background brings back memories of the darkest chapters in human history,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said. “We hope the sentence imposed today sends a strong message to all in our community that we will not tolerate antisemitism and hate of any sort.”

In 2022, the FBI affidavit said, Tran emailed former classmates using insulting language about Jewish people and also threatened a Jewish former classmate, repeatedly sending messages like “Someone is going to kill you, Jew” and “I want you dead, Jew.”

“As millions of Jewish Americans prepare to observe the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Justice Department reaffirms its commitment to aggressively confronting, disrupting, and prosecuting criminal acts motivated by antisemitism, or by hatred of any kind,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the statement. “No Jewish person in America should have to fear that any sign of their identity will make them the victim of a hate crime.”