U. S. Report

NYC gunman claimed he was Orthodox

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The gunman who shot and killed a New York city councilman last week claimed to be an Orthodox Jew. In a note he left before the incident, gunman Othniel Boaz Askew, 31, an African American, claimed to be an Orthodox Jew, a Yale University Law School graduate, a Gulf War veteran and a real estate developer, the New York Post reported.

Askew, a political rival of Councilman James Davis, had a police record of domestic violence against a former boyfriend and of petty theft, the Post said. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran and was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, the Post said.

Davis, 41, who was shot July 23 in the middle of a city council meeting, had worked for closer ties between blacks and Jews in the troubled Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Askew was shot and killed by a policeman.