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Kosher Market Attack Unnerves Jersey City: ‘I Just Hope They’re Safe’ Kosher Market Attack Unnerves Jersey City: ‘I Just Hope They’re Safe’
(32 minutes later)
[Read more about the shooting in Jersey City that left people six people dead.]
Naomi Perez was anxious. She had gotten a call from her son’s high school saying that students were going to be released later than usual.Naomi Perez was anxious. She had gotten a call from her son’s high school saying that students were going to be released later than usual.
She went to the school, in Jersey City, N.J., where she was among a group of nervous local residents blocked by police tape from one of the most violent scenes in the city’s recent history. She went to the school, in Jersey City, N.J., where she was among a group of nervous residents blocked by police tape from one of the most violent scenes in the city’s recent history.
“I just hope they’re safe,” she said as she waited for her son and two friend to emerge from the school, Henry Snyder High School. “We don’t really know the extent of how crazy it is.” “I just hope they’re safe,” she said as she waited for her son and two friends to emerge from the school, Henry Snyder High School. “We don’t really know the extent of how crazy it is.”
Schools on lockdown. Police helicopters circling in the gray sky above. Jersey City officers backed against a storefront, their guns aimed at a market across the street. New York City Police Department officers in riot gear descending on a rental truck. Schools on lockdown. Police helicopters circling in the gray sky above. Jersey City officers backed against a storefront, their guns aimed at a market across the street. New York City Police Department officers in riot gear descending on a rental van.
For several hours on Tuesday, the Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City was on edge as law enforcement officers from local, state and federal agencies engaged in a standoff with at least two armed people in a grocery store.For several hours on Tuesday, the Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City was on edge as law enforcement officers from local, state and federal agencies engaged in a standoff with at least two armed people in a grocery store.
In all, six people were killed, including a Jersey City police officer, the shooters who had holed up in the market and three people who were in the store when the firefight unfolded, officials said.In all, six people were killed, including a Jersey City police officer, the shooters who had holed up in the market and three people who were in the store when the firefight unfolded, officials said.
Anita Stuckey, 59, said she was at a nearby bodega when gunshots rang out.
“It was just back and forth shooting,” said Ms. Stuckey, a retired Army veteran who was on her way to a meeting at the Urban League of Hudson County a few blocks away at the time. She said the gunfire volleys sounded like something out of “Rambo.”
Ms. Stuckey said that she and others who were in the bodega stood by as police officers exchanged rounds with the armed people in the grocery store.
“And then it would stop,” she said. “Then we’d come out. Then they’ll start shooting again, so we’ll go back in the store. And it was like that for like an hour or more.”
Amanda Rodriguez, 27, said she was in her apartment nearby when she heard “popping noises.”
“To me, that’s nothing new around here,” she said. “But when it continued, that’s what got me afraid.”
Ms. Rodriguez described officers screaming to onlookers to get inside, and bullets ricocheting off telephone poles. She said that she, her husband, a friend and a woman they pulled off the street stayed indoors for hours
“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” she said.
The center of the chaotic scene, the JC Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Drive near Bayview Avenue, caters to a small, but growing, number of about 100 Hasidic families who arrived in recent years after being priced out of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.The center of the chaotic scene, the JC Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Drive near Bayview Avenue, caters to a small, but growing, number of about 100 Hasidic families who arrived in recent years after being priced out of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
There was “no indication of terrorism,” an official said at an afternoon news conference.There was “no indication of terrorism,” an official said at an afternoon news conference.
The Jewish families, many of whom belong to the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect, have settled into houses on dense blocks with neighbors that include a Catholic School, a Pentecostal church and a Dominican restaurant. Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic community leader, said that his nephew, Shimon Goldberger, had described to him being at prayer services at a synagogue next to the kosher market around noon.
The kosher market’s opening three years ago signaled that they were putting down roots in what remains a largely African-American part of Jersey City. As Mr. Goldberger left the synagogue, Mr. Rapaport said, he saw what he believed to be two men, who were holding long rifles, get out of a U-Haul truck and start shooting immediately.
Kwame Opam, Sharon Otterman and Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting. Mr. Goldberger told Mr. Rapaport that he ran to his car, which was parked across the street, and called 911. The police told him to wait in the car. An armored vehicle subsequently pulled up between him and the shooters, and he ran for cover.
The Jewish families who have moved into the area, many of them members of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect, have settled into houses on dense blocks with neighbors that include a Catholic school, a Pentecostal church and a Dominican restaurant.
The kosher market’s opening three years ago signaled that they were putting down roots in what remains a largely African-American part of Jersey City, which is across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan.
Officials believe that the shooting spree began when Detective Joseph Seals, a Jersey City police veteran, approached two people at a nearby cemetery in connection with a homicide investigation and was shot dead, a person familiar with the matter said.
The people fled and ended up at the kosher market, where they immediately began firing at police officers and civilians alike, officials said. Residents blocks away could hear bursts of gunfire for the next hour and beyond.
Chesky Deutsch, a local Hasidic activist, said that up to 100 children ranging in age from 7 to 10 had been trapped in a yeshiva school next door to the market.
“All they heard was gunshots for two hours,” Mr. Deutsch said. “We already brought down some therapists to help the children.”
He said he did not yet know the identity of those in the store who had been killed. “We are trying to make arrangements that it be done in a proper way, the burials, the notifications to the families,” he said.
By early Tuesday night, the intersection of Wilkinson Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, near the site of the siege, was still cordoned off. Two police cruisers were parked at the corner to keep neighbors and passers-by from getting through.
People gathered in small groups on the sidewalk. Some took videos with their cellphones. Others were visibly shaking when reporters approached.
Kwame Opam, Sharon Otterman and Andrea Salcedo contributed reporting.