Man fires blanks in San Francisco synagogue

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03 Feb 2023, 8:06 pm

FBI investigating after shooter fires blanks in San Francisco Russian Jewish center

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A man fired blanks from a handgun inside a Jewish center in San Francisco on Wednesday, shocking a group gathered for a study session in a community space serving mainly Russian-speaking Jews.

But no one present called police, so it was not until word of the incident began circulating in the community that authorities became involved. Local police and the FBI are now searching for the suspect, whom they believe may have been the same person who brandished a gun at a local theater earlier in the week.

The man entered the Schneerson Center around 7:20 p.m. in the middle of a session on the life of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, according to Rabbi Bentzion Pil, who leads the community.

After the man entered, Pil said he first asked whether he wanted to join their session, but it soon became clear that was not his intention.

Instead, the man pulled out a gun and said in accented Russian that he was from Mossad and that he was going to start shooting, attendees said. Other outlets reported that he may have announced, “Say hello to Mossad for me.”

Located in a Richmond District neighborhood near what’s often called Little Russia, the Schneerson Center is a node of Jewish life for immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the Bay Area, where households from the former Soviet Union number between 15,000 and 20,000, according to Rabbi Shimon Margolin, who leads a local nonprofit serving Russian-speaking Jews.

A jarring video of the incident captured on a security camera shows what unfolded: A man wearing a baseball cap, jacket and sneakers enters the room and gestures animatedly with his arms while speaking to those seated around a table. After about 15 seconds, he reaches into his jacket pocket and reveals a handgun. He appears to struggle to cock the weapon, while an elderly man makes a phone call and starts walking toward him.

As the elderly man approaches, the suspect starts firing his weapon, and the elderly man crouches down. The man fires in a direction away from those seated around the table, then proceeds to fire around the room while some people clutch their ears and duck. In total the suspect fires between six and eight shots. Then he leaves.

The video shows little movement from a dozen or so people around the table — many of whom are in their 60s or older, synagogue members said.

Pil said the group was perplexed. “It was so unexpected from him,” he said.

One person in the group said he might have seen the suspect before. After the shooting started, Pil said he went into the kitchen to grab a knife, but by the time he got back the man was gone.

After the man left, those gathered deliberated about whether to call the police, Pil said.

“I still believe it was just a crazy guy,” he said. “He didn’t scream any antisemitic words or expressions.”

Ultimately, Pil said, they decided it wasn’t worth contacting the police because they were unhurt and they doubted the man would be kept in detention for long if he was caught.

Only the next day was law enforcement contacted after some of the younger community members heard about what had happened.

Mattie Pil, the rabbi’s wife, lent another interpretation as to why the mostly senior Jews from the former Soviet Union did not contact police.

“They still feel like they’re in the Soviet Union,” she said. “There, when something happens, it’s always the fault of the Jews. If you called police, it would be your fault. So they didn’t want to make any waves.”


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05 Feb 2023, 12:07 pm

SFPD arrest man suspected of firing blank rounds inside synagogue, bringing gun into theater

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San Francisco police investigators arrested a man late Friday afternoon in connection with an incident earlier in the week in which a man with a gun entered a Jewish synagogue and fired off several blank rounds.

Video from Security cameras showed the man walking into the Jewish Center Wednesday. We're also learning the name of the suspected shooter.

The suspect is identified as 51-year-old Dmitri Mishin.

Matthew Finkelstein says members of the Schneerson Jewish Center are still processing the events of last Wednesday.

Police added late Friday night that Mishin is also connected with another incident that occurred at about 8 p.m. Tuesday, when they say he entered a theater in the 3600 block of Balboa Street, brandishing a handgun. He then fled the scene. No one was injured.

Police investigators developed probable cause to obtain a search warrant and searched Mishin's residence. The search revealed evidence related to the incidents, which was seized.


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09 Mar 2023, 10:48 am

Judge tosses hate crime charges in S.F. synagogue shooting case

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“It’s a form of prayer.”

That’s how a San Francisco police officer recapped what Dmitri Mishin told him he was doing the evening of Feb. 1 when he walked into a Russian Jewish synagogue and opened fire with a gun that shoots blanks.

The testimony this week from Sgt. Michael Zhang came on the first day of a preliminary hearing, a juryless proceeding where a judge decides which charges brought by prosecutors will stick. The hearing was the first time that prosecutor Jamal Anderson and public defender Olivia Taylor presented arguments at length in the case, as competing narratives emerged from witness testimony that was at times peculiar, and often emotional.

Presiding Superior Court Judge Loretta M. Giorgi affirmed the bulk of the charges brought against 51-year-old Mishin, but in a move that complicated the narrative brought by prosecutors and significantly changed the complexion of the case, Giorgi tossed out hate crime charges, determining they were not sufficiently supported.

Hate crime charges, known as “enhancements,” are appended to already existing crimes, but do not constitute crimes in and of themselves. In the Mishin case, the enhancements, added to felony charges for interfering with religious worship, had been held up by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins as symbolic of the city’s tough tack on bias-motivated crimes.

“I understand how deeply disturbing this event was,” the judge said. But in her view, Anderson did not produce enough evidence showing hate was a “substantial motivating factor” behind Mishin’s act.

Surveillance footage of the incident, which the judge called “bizarre,” did not contribute to claims of a bias motivation. In fact, it did more to show Mishin behaving in a way that appeared “affable” — he began by chatting with those gathered, and afterward waved goodbye.

“We’re dealing with a disturbed mind here,” the judge said.

Mishin’s mental state loomed over the proceedings, although no witnesses were called to testify to it directly. At one point Taylor, the public defender, said Mishin was “heavily intoxicated” during the incident. As to Mishin’s motivation and intent, she posited there may have been an “absence of intent whatsoever.”

Witnesses said he uttered the words “Mossad” and “Haifa” while inside the room. And interviews with police, recounted during the hearing, suggested Mishin made nonsensical statements at the time of his arrest. Taylor, questioning an officer on the stand and reading from police records, asked him to confirm whether Mishin said, “I live in a submarine.” At another point Taylor read from the report that Mishin, asked where he lived, responded “I have no idea, I’m traveling in my mind everywhere.”

Mishin had been undergoing outpatient mental health treatment but had not been following his treatment regime recently, multiple people said.

Meanwhile Anderson, the prosecutor who handles hate crimes for Jenkins’ office, argued that bias was implicit in the act itself. He said it was not the first time Mishin had been to the Schneerson Center — days earlier a Twitter account linked to Mishin published a video of a small fire burning outside, on Balboa Street.

“The defendant did not go into a grocery store, or a movie theater, or a cafe” and start firing, Anderson said. “He went into a synagogue.”

Anderson introduced evidence showing Mishin’s interest in Nazism, including multiple photos in which he is wearing a World War II-era Nazi uniform. Defense pointed to Mishin’s performance as an actor in the 2010 movie “Grave Dawn,” arguing that the photos were not evidence of a belief in Nazi ideology but rather evidence of an interest in acting.

Anderson also introduced into evidence a photo of Nazi propaganda posted on the Twitter account the day before the shooting. The photo contains a stereotypical caricature of a Jew, with a bulbous nose and features fixed in a grimace. It says “Achtung – Jude!” German for “Danger – a Jew!” Also, in the days immediately following the shooting, the account posted a handful of the Nazi uniform photos. In one a man who looks like Mishin holds a grenade.

“You can’t set aside what he posted on Twitter,” Anderson said.

While defense argued Mishin’s posts did not contain “commentary,” Anderson said, “posting Nazi fascist propaganda one day before shooting [in a synagogue] is the commentary,” as is posting images in a Nazi uniform after.

“We don’t need to dig deeper than that,” he said.

In California, hate crime enhancements do not come with a predetermined penalty. Rather, they give judges discretion to enhance penalties.

Giorgi held the two felony counts, as well as a misdemeanor for “disturbing a religious meeting.” She also certified six misdemeanors for brandishing an imitation weapon “in such a way as to cause a reasonable person apprehension and fear of bodily harm.”

The judge dismissed three other counts of brandishing a weapon because the three relevant witnesses said they were not afraid when Mishin pulled out the gun, only “shocked.” Giorgi said being scared was an element required for that charge.

The judge also discussed broadly the climate of antisemitism in the country, and attacks targeting Jews in synagogues.

Still, the evidence was not sufficient to show Mishin harbored antisemitic or neo-Nazi views, the judge decided.

In emotional testimony, Mishin’s mother, Ludmila Mishina, a slight woman wearing spectacles and a blazer, testified to her son’s character.

“He is a peaceful man,” she said.

She added that she grew up in the Soviet Union in a city with no synagogue or Jewish life, but that her mother was born a Jew. (That makes her and Dmitri technically Jewish according to Jewish law.)

No evidence was presented showing Mishin practiced Judaism or identified with the religion. At one point his mother said he wanted to be a priest.

After Giorgi announced her ruling, Mishin’s lawyer requested he be released from custody. The judge refused, saying “he could put himself at further risk, or put others at further risk.”

Speaking to the risk he might still pose, Giorgi said the incident could have been worse. When police searched Mishin’s home at the time of his arrest, they found a number of weapons incapable of firing real bullets. But they also found what appeared to be a functional rifle, and live ammunition.

In a statement to J. Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League’s San Francisco office criticized the judge’s ruling vis-a-vis the hate crime enhancements.

“The judge’s decision to drop the hate crime charge is deeply disappointing and disregards the evidence of the defendant’s intent,” the statement from regional director Seth Brysk said. “There is ample proof that [Mishin] intentionally targeted this institution and these individuals because of their Jewish identity; the very definition of a hate crime.”


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“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman