A Jewish family in California had two women and a man fire a weapon at their home after shouting ‘free Palestine’ when seeing two of the fmaily members in their yard.
Thankfully it wasn’t fatal, and police believe it was an airsoft gun.
Here’s more from KTLA:
A Jewish family in San Bernardino County is refusing to let what police are investigating as a possible hate crime by a trio of suspects who opened fire on the home dampen the Hanukkah message of bringing light to the world.
The frightening Dec. 12 incident played out around 8 p.m. when homeowner Rodgir Cohen and his son Jon Paul were about to leave their Redlands home in the 1300 block of Magnolia Avenue.
Rodgir and Jon Paul encountered three suspects, two women and a man, in a four-door sedan.
“He was holding whatever it was towards me, but he chose to yell at me,” Jon Paul told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo. “He said, ‘Free Palestine,’ and then he used the N-word. Looking back and realizing that what he had in his hand was likely a gun and that he was that close to me really shakes me up.”
After the encounter, the father and son got into their vehicle and drove away, but moments later, the family’s home surveillance cameras captured a vehicle returning and firing more than 20 rounds from what was likely, according to investigators with the Redlands Police Department, an Airsoft gun.
Homeowner Heftsibah Cohen said when she heard the noise, she thought there were fireworks going off that made the dogs bark.
“It wasn’t until we pulled the surveillance video that we realized it wasn’t fireworks,” she said.
The family’s home, adorned with Hanukkah decorations, was shot at more than 20 times. Fortunately, the only real damage was some of the inflatables in the front yard that were pierced.
“You just hear the [shooting]. You don’t know if it’s a ricochet or a fire,” Rodgir told KTLA. “Police didn’t collect any ballistic shells.”
Three family members were inside the home at the time of the incident.