ICE Issues Immigration Detention on West Rogers Park Hate Crime Suspect – NBC Chicago

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced that the Cook County Jail has been placed in immigration custody for a suspect charged with hate crimes and terrorism in connection with the shooting of an Orthodox Jew in West Rogers Park.

“For those of us in the Jewish community, it always felt like a hate crime, it always felt like an act of terrorism, and we are now pleased that the charges reflect that reality,” said David Goldenberg, regional director of the anti-military Agency in the Midwest. Said the Defamation League.

Goldenberg told NBC Chicago he has been in contact with the victim's family and said what happened to the 39-year-old victim was something they had feared for years.

“We have seen a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Chicago, an increase of nearly 300% compared to last year, and we are concerned about how this has manifested itself, whether through vandalism or through harassment and, in this particular case, through an attack .” or attempted murder,” he said.

Surveillance video captured parts of the Saturday morning shooting. Police said the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, targeted the Jewish man as he walked to his synagogue.

Police said officers and paramedics attended the scene to assist the victim, after which Abdallahi fired shots at them before being shot dead by police.

“Because investigators were unable to interview the perpetrator because of the injuries he sustained in the shooting, investigators combed through digital evidence to solve this case,” CPD Supt. Larry Snelling said. “The perpetrator’s phone shows that he planned this shooting specifically against people of the Jewish faith. This evidence allowed us to secure terrorism and hate crime charges.”

Court records show Abdallahi's last known address was listed as 115 on Chicago's Far South Side^Th Street. NBC Chicago spoke on the phone with the landlord, who said he did not know the suspect, had never rented to him and believed the suspect's possible relative may have lived in the apartment.

Police said the suspect is not from Chicago. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC Chicago that the federal agency placed an immigration detainee in the Cook County Jail on Oct. 29, days after the reported shooting.

In a statement, an ICE spokesman said Abdallahi is a Mauritanian citizen who was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol agents near San Ysidro, California, in March.

Abdallahi is scheduled to appear in court on November 7, unless there is a further delay due to his health.