Chicago-area shooter’s group tied to Sacramento arsons

CHICAGO (JTA) -- Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, the 21-year-old white supremacist who allegedly went on a shooting spree against minorities over the weekend, belonged to an overtly racist and anti-Semitic group that advocates a racial holy war.

The World Church of the Creator also is under investigation by federal authorities in connection with the June 18 arson attacks on three Sacramento synagogues. Hate literature from the Peoria, Ill.-based hate group was found at Kenesset Israel and at Congregation Beth Shalom, two of three synagogues hit by arsonists.

"We're not ruling them out," said U.S. Attorney Paul Seave, who is probing the Sacramento fires. "We'd be very foolish to." However, the group, which has five active chapters in the Sacramento region, is not the only subject under scrutiny, he said.

Matt Hale, director of the World Church of the Creator, denied any involvement in the Sacramento crimes. Hale, however, admits to be a mentor to the alleged Chicago-area shooter. But he says Smith quit his organization in May.

However, during the period he belonged to Hale's group, Smith had been arrested several times. His most recent arrest was in north suburban Chicago in April, for distributing anti-Semitic and anti-minority literature produced by that organization.

According to police, over the weekend Smith allegedly went on a shooting rampage, which ended Sunday night in his alleged suicide. Two were killed and nine injured in the attacks; six of the injured were Orthodox Jews.

The initial attacks took place last Friday evening within an eight-block radius in West Rogers Park, home to the Chicago area's largest population of Orthodox Jews. Many Jewish residents were walking the streets at the time, on their way to and from synagogues.

The injured Jews were Hillel Goldstein, 34; Eric Yates, 31; Dean Bell, 31; Gidon Sapir, 34, an Israeli; Ian Hupert, 31; and Ephraim Wolfe, 15.

That none of the six was killed is "nothing short of miraculous," said Rabbi Zev Cohen, of Congregation Adas Yeshurun, where several of the wounded are members.

The shooting spree began at approximately 8:20 p.m. last Friday, when the gunman shot Goldstein in the stomach. Two minutes later he shot Yates in the upper leg, landed four bullets in Bell and hit Sapir in the lower back, all within one block of each other.

He then drove a few blocks south and west, where he shot at two people but missed both. Then, moving the wrong way down a one-way street, he hit his next victim, Hupert, and finally ended his attack in the area with Wolfe, whom he shot in the leg.

"It's a bit ironic," Sapir told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I'm a captain in the Israeli infantry and after spending time in Lebanon and the West Bank, I get shot in Chicago."

He told the Chicago Jewish News he was walking back from shul with his two children, ages 4 and 5, when the shooting started.

"When I realized this was shooting, I pushed my son to the ground. My daughter was a little behind me, out of the line of fire and jumped on top of him. While doing that I got shot in the back."

Sapir says the experience has reinforced for him one "obvious" belief: "The only place Jews should live is Eretz Yisrael."

Wolfe has another message: "I want to tell people, don't be scared. I want to encourage people to go out, go to shul, go to the park, walk down the streets. I don't want people to hide."

He was shot as he walked home from services.

"There were two shots; he missed the first time," Wolfe said. "I thought it was firecrackers. Then my leg felt heavy. I lifted up my pants and saw a hole the size of a dime and blood oozing out. Then I realized I was shot."

Michael Kotzin, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation/Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, said, "The entire community is thankful that this streak of violence has come to an end. "At the same time, the horrifying events of this July Fourth weekend will continue to reverberate in the Jewish community and in the community at large."

While Orthodox Jews don't listen to the radio or watch TV on Shabbat, word had spread throughout the community by Saturday morning.

A buzz could be heard at West Rogers Park synagogues, as congregants who hadn't seen the story in the morning papers shared developments with each other.

Cohen and Chicago Police Commander David Boggs said the police had received "the best cooperation" from the Jewish community.

Cohen said the Orthodox community is getting support from the entire community, Jews and non-Jews. "We're all together. We're all grieving, we're all mourning, we're all shaken, and no matter how we differ in the incidentals of our daily lives, if we come together when tragedy strikes, we're a family," Cohen said Sunday at a news conference.

Following the Rogers Park attack, the gunman headed to Skokie, a suburb just north of Chicago, where he shot and killed an African-American man who was taking a stroll with two of his three children. The victim, Ricky Byrdsong, 43, was a well-known former Northwestern University basketball coach.

According to police, the shooter then drove north to Northbrook, about 10 miles north of Skokie, where he shot at an Asian-American couple in their car. They were not wounded.

Two more shootings took place Saturday night in Springfield and Urbana, injuring three. A third shooting Sunday morning in Bloomington, Ind., killed Won-Joon Yoon, a Korean student who was leaving church services.

On Sunday night, the FBI announced that the suspect shot and killed himself after police pursued him in southern Illinois.

While individuals attempted to grasp what transpired over Shabbat, the organized Jewish community mobilized to provide several types of assistance.

The Chicago Jewish federation worked to aid police in getting the word out to Rogers Park residents, and assembled several of its agencies and other community organizations to put together a plan for social services to the neighborhood.

By Sunday morning, the Jewish Children's Bureau and Jewish Family and Community Service had coordinated a plan to provide counseling for the wounded as well as to others in need

For Michael Messing, who was walking with shooting victim Goldstein in West Rogers Park, the message is a call to active involvement in pushing gun control legislation.

"My thoughts go back to the Columbine shooting," Messing said. "My thoughts were then, 'Can it happen anyplace else?' Now it's on my front doorstep. There is no place that is truly safe anymore. I'm not going to sit back and let it happen. I'm going to get involved."