Former President Donald Trump blamed the policies of his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden Administration for the shooting of a Jewish man in Chicago as he was walking to synagogue a week ago.
"Only days ago, an illegal alien from North Africa, who Kamala let into our county with her horrendous open border, traveled to a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago and tried to execute a Jewish man on the street, shooting him in the back as he walked to synagogue," Trump said at a campaign rally.
"He then opened fire on police and paramedics, shooting an ambulance before police returned fire and ended his rampage fairly quickly," the former president added, praising the police response and stating that "our police have got to be respected."
On Thursday, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, was charged with one felony count of terrorism and one felony count of a hate crime for the Shabbat shooting. Abdallahi is accused of approaching a visibly Jewish 39-year-old man from behind on the city’s North Side and firing several shots at the victim before firing “at responding officers and paramedics multiple times from various locations,” police say. Officers returned fire, striking the gunman.
Abdallahi, who is reportedly an illegal alien from Mauritania who was previously caught and released in the US Border Patrol's San Diego sector, was initially charged with six counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, and a count of aggravated battery.
Representatives of the Jewish community criticized the initial reluctance to charge Abdallahi with a hate crime and the mayor's omission of the victim's Jewish identity in his statements on the shooting.