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23 Tammuz 5759 - July 7, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Six Jews Wounded in Shabbos Hate Crime in Chicago; Gunman Commits Suicide

by S. Singer and News Agencies

Six Jews on their way home from Friday night services were shot and wounded by a gunman who went on a two state shooting rampage against Jews, blacks and Asian-Americans. The man police said carried out the shootings was Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a 21-year-old member of a white supremacist group. The bloodthirsty spree ended late Sunday night with the alleged gunman's suicide.

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

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.

Authorities gave the following description of events:

About 8:20 p.m. Friday, the gunman stopped at a corner in West Rogers Park as dozens of observant Jews walked to and from religious services.

Stepping out of his car, the man walked to within 15 feet of a group of men and boys and opened fire with a pair of semiautomatic handguns, a .22-caliber and a .380-caliber. Hillel Goldstein, a Skokie high school teacher, was shot in the stomach and fell to the ground.

One witness, Dr. Michael Messing, said that as the gunman fled that first shooting, "he was driving slow. I think he was still looking to shoot people. He wasn't looking to get away."

Two minutes later, several more shots rang out around the corner, wounding Eric Yates in the upper leg.

Three minutes later, witnesses said the man began shooting from his car. Dean Bell was shot four times, and Gidon Sapir, a former captain in the Israeli army was also shot in the lower back and wounded. Both are said to be in good condition.

At 8:32 p.m., Ian Huper, 31, of Skokie was shot in the right forearm and right side as he was driving north on North Sacramento Avenue. The gunman opened fire from his car as he drove south -- the wrong way on a one-way street.

Three minutes later, Ephraim Wolfe, who was walking with his friend to another nearby synagogue, was shot in the right leg. The other boy was not injured. Wolfe is a student at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago. He later told reporters that he does not feel anger towards the attacker.

By 8:52 p.m., the shooter attacked again in Skokie, a nearby neighborhood, where Ricky Byrdsong, 43, was walking with two of his children near their home. Byrdsong was hit once in the lower back -- an injury from which he died hours later. Byrdsong, who was black, was a former Northwestern University basketball coach. He had been working for an insurance company since he was fired by Northwestern in 1997 after four seasons. He was married with three children.

One of those shot said that as he crossed the street near his house Friday night, en route home from shul, something caught his attention. Sitting at a stop sign at the intersection was a car, and the driver was staring at him.

As an observant Jew wearing a black hat and long black coat, the man was accustomed to stares from people unfamiliar with his faith. So he ignored the gaze and continued walking. Suddenly he heard four quick, loud bangs. He had been shot, but he didn't immediately realize it.

"Because I'm used to hearing fireworks now [Editor's Note: Around the American Independence Day, July 4, children set off a lot of firecrackers], I assumed it was a prank," the man said later. "But I felt an impact. And I said, `Oh, it must be a BB gun.' But the pain was excruciating, and there was blood."

The man, a chassidic Jew and school therapist who holds dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship, said that he saw the face of the shooter, a white man with short black or brown hair, and the sight was unnerving. "I got the sense he was enjoying himself," he said. "He had this predator look to him."

A doctor from the neighborhood and his son ran to his side as he lay bleeding, and they kept him talking until an ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital.

Another shooting victim, Gidon Sapir, was hospitalized but said to be in fair condition. A bullet in his lower abdomen has been removed. A lawyer who has taught college courses at, among other places, Northwestern University, Sapir is an Israeli citizen.

"I was on my way back from synagogue, accompanied by my two children, 5 and 4 years old, and a friend of mine [Dean Bell]," Sapir said. "My son heard a noise, and not knowing, I told him it was probably a car backfire. So we kept walking, and when we got to Francisco and Lunt, a car stopped next to us.

"He did not get out of the car, he started shooting from the car, thereby breaking the passenger's side window. After the first shot, I threw my son down on the ground and jumped on him," he said, adding he didn't get a good look at the shooter. "So I got hit on my back.

"I would say that it's a bit ironic. I'm a captain in the Israeli infantry . . . and after spending time in Lebanon and the West Bank, I get shot in Chicago," he said, adding that he and his family had been planning to return to Israel this summer.

By late Saturday night, most had been released from area hospitals.

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 were members.

Smith was a member of the World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group based in Peoria, Illinois. It does not worship any god. He had been arrested several times, most recently in north suburban Chicago in April, for distributing antisemitic and anti-minority literature produced by that organization.

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

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.

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 downstate Illinois, in Springfield and Urbana, injuring an Asian- American student. A third shooting Sunday morning in Bloomington, Indiana, killed a male Korean American who was leaving Sunday church services.

On Sunday night, the FBI announced that the suspect shot and killed himself after police pursued him in rural southern Illinois. Bloomington police said two guns found with the body were consistent with those used in shootings in Bloomington and Chicago. Other evidence also indicated that the he was the murderer, including a tattoo that he had saying "Sabbath Breaker."

The police said the crimes did not fit the legal definition of a hate crime, because they had no expression of hatred or motive from the shooter.

Jewish Federation agencies have offered their support to the Byrdsong family.


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