The individual accused of shooting a Jewish man as he was walking to a synagogue in the West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago last month reportedly prepared for the antisemitic attack in the week leading up to the violent incident.
Prosecutors alleged during a Friday court hearing that the defendant, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, used his phone to search for the locations of Jewish religious congregations and community centers, a gun store, and a shooting range at least six days before the October 26 incident, which resulted in injuries to the 39-year-old unnamed victim and responding emergency personnel.
“This was not anything but a planned attack, an attempted assassination of these people,” Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers explained to Judge Susana Ortiz. “This was a calculated plan, on a public street, and an attempted slaughter of that person and law enforcement officers.”
Abdallahi, who witnesses say yelled “Allahu Akbar” during the incursion, is charged with six counts of attempted murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, one count of aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm, one count of terrorism, and one count of committing a hate crime.
The purported gunman, originally from Mauritania, had been living in the United States illegally since his release from U.S. Border Patrol custody after his 2023 apprehension in San Diego.
