By Nick Baum
THURSDAY – 10/10/19
Two people have been confirmed dead and several more injured when a gunman opened fire on pedestrians close to a synagogue during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, considered by many as the holiest day of the Hebrew calendar. Police in Halle, Germany arrested the suspected gunman, only identified as 27-year-old Stephan B.
A significant factor of the shooting was that it was live streamed. The gunman attached a camera to the top of his helmet and live streamed to Twitch, a popular streaming website. In the video, the gunman spouted anti semitic comments and tried breaking down the doors of the synagogue. Footage shows he tried shooting the lock several times and tried blowing down the door, all to no avail.
The attempts to get into the synagogue along with the gunman’s comments have confirmed this as an anti semitic driven attack, according to authorities. Around 70 to 80 individuals were in the synagogue when the doors were being challenged, 10 of which were Americans according to the United States Embassy in Berlin.
Sources and Pictures: CNN, The Straits Times, Twitter, US Embassy Berlin
