Hate crime suspect looked up synagogue locations before shooting Jewish man

A man now facing hate crime charges after shooting an Orthodox Jewish man and firing on police and paramedics last month had mapped the locations of several Chicago synagogues and Jewish schools in the days leading up to the attack in the North Side’s West Ridge neighborhood, prosecutors said.

At a detention hearing Friday, prosecutors said Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi’s cellphone data showed the 22-year-old had been seeking out targets for days before shooting a 39-year-old man who was on his way to worship services on Oct. 26. Among several addresses Abdallahi had mapped on his phone was a synagogue just a block from the shooting scene.

“This was not anything but a planned attack … an attempted assassination of these people,” Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers said. “This was a calculated plan, on a public street... and an attempted slaughter of that person and law enforcement officers.”

Friday marked the first in-court appearance for Abdallahi, who was hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds after a shootout with police who arrived at the shooting scene. Abdallahi walked into the hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse slowly, shuffling as he pushed a walker in front of him on his way to a seat beside his public defender.

Abdallahi, an immigrant from Mauritania, had lived in the U.S. for “at least two years” and worked at an Amazon warehouse, Assistant Public Defender Josh Thigpen said. Judge Susana Ortiz ordered Abdallahi detained on multiple counts of attempted murder, and hate crime and terrorism charges.

McCord Rodgers said the victim, wearing a traditional Jewish kippah and prayer shawl as he walked to synagogue, did not see Abdallahi as the gunman walked behind him in the 2900 block of West Farwell. The man heard the gunshot and felt the bullet hit his shoulder, but realized he had been shot only after noticing a hole in his jacket where the bullet exited, McCord said.

A surveillance camera showed Abdallahi fire at the man, run off, then try to clear his apparently jammed semi-automatic pistol while walking back toward the victim, before again running off, McCord Rodgers said.

Moments after the shooting, another camera captured Abdallahi driving a few blocks away, then parking and returning on foot to the shooting scene, walking past a woman with a baby stroller, she added.

From an alley, Abdallahi fired twice in the direction of four police officers searching for evidence and a pair of paramedics tending to the wounded man, McCord Rodgers said. Abdallahi ran down the alley, cutting through a yard, then circled back toward the ambulance as paramedics were loading the injured man. Abdallahi again shot at the ambulance, hitting it twice as a fifth police officer returned fire.

Abdallahi again ran down the alley, cutting through a front yard and pausing to fire a shot at a police officer, McCord Rodgers said. Abdallahi took cover, then emerged on Washtenaw Street and exchanged gunfire with police. Abdallahi was shot and fell to the ground, but rose again to fire on the police before collapsing on the sidewalk.

Abdallahi’s phone was found inside his car, and data on the device showed had saved the locations of a nearby synagogue on Oct. 20 and Oct. 24. On Oct. 22 and 23, he had saved the location of another synagogue in Hyde Park. Two weeks before the shooting, his Google search history showed he had looked up “Jewish Community center” and a gun store in suburban Lyons. McCord Rodgers said. The phone also had more than 100 “antisemitic and pro-Hamas” images and videos, McCord Rodgers said.