A Massachusetts white supremacist gunman who murdered two people because they were black was allegedly planning to attack a nearby synagogue when he crashed his stolen truck, according to witnesses.
Nathan Allen, 28, shot David Green, a retired state police officer, and Romana Cooper, an Air Force veteran, after crashing a stolen truck into a building in Winthrop, Massachusetts.
After he crashed, he spoke “with multiple individuals … choosing only to shoot and kill the two black people he encountered,” Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said.
Allen was later shot dead by a police sergeant at the scene.
The local synagogue, Temple Tifereth Israel in Winthrop, was in shock upon hearing the news.
Temple Tifereth President Sandra Pellegrino told the local CBC News affiliate that some of them would have been in the building at the time Allen would have arrived there had he not crashed the truck.
“It’s just beyond my comprehension how anyone would have wasted energy to have such hate,” she said.
The synagogue is holding a community meeting to reassure members.
“It’s very hard for us to deal with as a temple, that because of his idea of coming here filled with hate, that he took it out on the two people,” Pellegrino said.
Evan Bernstein, the national director and CEO of the Community Security Service, a nonprofit that protects Jewish institutions, told the Algemeiner that reports of the synagogue being a target are “deeply disturbing.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” Bernstein said. “With the current climate, Jewish communal leadership — not only in the Boston metro area but across the country — must continue to prioritize security.”
Allen stole the plumber’s truck from a garage in Winthrop. He crashed the truck into a vacant house. Damage to the house was severe.
When his attempt to steal another car was not successful, he murdered two African Americans he encountered.
Authorities found anti-Semitic and racist diatribes in a notebook during a search of Allen’s home, reported WBUR.
The writing was described by investigators as “troubling white supremacist rhetoric” written in Allen’s handwriting.
Rollins said in a press conference that Allen was acting alone.
“This individual wrote about the superiority of the white race. About whites being ‘apex predators’. He drew swastikas,” her office said.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)