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Jersey City shooting to be investigated as domestic terror

By Danielle Haynes
Police and workers surround the scene where a deadly shooting left a police officer and five others dead Tuesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Police and workers surround the scene where a deadly shooting left a police officer and five others dead Tuesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The FBI is investigating a shooting at a Jewish store that left six people dead as domestic terrorism, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Thursday.

The state's top prosecutor said the two suspects, who died in the hours-long shootout with police, appeared to be motivated by "both anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement" views.

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"Based on what we have collected so far, including based on recent witness interviews, we believe that the suspects held views that reflected hatred of the Jewish people as well as a hatred of law enforcement," Grewal said in a news conference.

Investigators identified the shooters as David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50.

The Tuesday shooting began at a cemetery in Jersey City, where police said the shooters fatally shot Detective Joseph Seals. The detective had approached the U-Haul van the shooters were in because it was reported linked to a homicide.

Police said the shooters then traveled a mile away to the JC Kosher Supermarket where they killed three civilians inside. They then entered into a gun battle with police.

Police sources told ABC News that investigators found hate-fueled religious writings by the two suspects.

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"I do this because my creator makes me do this and I hate who he hates," police said the writing said.

Anderson allegedly was a one-time follower of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a black supremacist group.

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