The national outrage has simmered after Chicago officials waited five days to confirm that 22-year-old Mauritanian national Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi’s target in an Oct. 26 shooting in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago was an Orthodox Jewish man wearing a kippah.
Even when officials noted that Abdallahi intentionally sought Jewish victims while announcing hate crime and terrorism charges against him on Oct. 31, they left out another key detail about the attacker. Abdallahi was in the country illegally, having been paroled into the United States after entering near San Ysidro in March 2023, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed.
The wrinkles of Abdallahi’s case continued to unfold. The assailant was seriously wounded during a shootout with police who responded to his Oct. 26 attack. However, on Saturday, eight days after Abdallahi used a walker while “shuffling” into his detention hearing, he was found unresponsive in his jail cell after an apparent attempt to hang himself. Abdallahi was pronounced dead at an area hospital, and authorities say they found no evidence of foul play.
Abdallahi’s Nov. 22 detention hearing resulted in the release of new details about his attack. Officials said Abdallahi used his phone to find synagogues, Jewish community centers, a gun store, and a firing range prior to his attack. Abdallahi also had over 100 “antisemitic and pro-Hamas” videos and photos on his phone, which police recovered from his car after the crime.
During the hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers described the events of Abdallahi’s crime in more detail, noting that the assailant stopped shooting at his initial target while he attempted to clear his “apparently jammed semi-automatic pistol.” His subsequent targets, as authorities and media reported, were paramedics and police officers.
At the hearing, it was also revealed that Abdallahi had lived in the country for “at least two years” and was employed at an Amazon warehouse.
Malka Reich, a Jewish resident of West Rogers Park, spoke to the Washington Examiner about the new details of the act of terrorism that was partially captured on her Ring camera. She said Abdallahi’s death “doesn’t change [her] concerns about antisemitism and crime” in Chicago.
“I think my Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors alike are hoping that Chicago gets safer for everyone because everyone’s being affected by the crime,” she explained.
Over a month after Abdallahi’s attack, Reich said her West Rogers Park community is “back to business.”
“We’ve always taken safety really seriously,” she explained. “I don’t think we could do anymore.”
However, Reich also explained that the community “would love help with security, with immigration. Immigration is a huge issue here.”
Reich said she does not feel that Chicago leaders will tackle the matter themselves.
“I was disappointed recently when [Gov. J.B. Pritzker] announced that he won’t be deporting any illegal aliens … [I]t’s very alarming to me that he’s not going to be helping with this issue,” Reich said.
Under President-elect Donald Trump, “Is the federal government going to step in, or are we on our own?” Reich asked.
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When it comes to antisemitism, Reich said, “Chicago has a real problem.” The mother of five said she no longer feels safe going downtown, citing how masked men attacked two pro-Israel protesters on DePaul University’s campus on Nov. 6.
Moving to another city is out of the question, Reich explained. Not only is finding a new home unaffordable for her family but the sense of insecurity she has in Chicago is shared by Jewish Americans countrywide. Reich explained, “It doesn’t feel like anywhere is a good answer, so we’re all just sort of fighting on our own fronts.”
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News and the host of The Afghanistan Project, which takes a deep dive into the tragedy wrought in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.