A man accused of wounding two Jewish men in a pair of shootings in West Los Angeles this week was arrested last year after he was found on the Cal State University, Long Beach campus with a loaded gun, school officials said.
Jamie Tran, 28, described as homeless, was charged Friday with federal hate crimes after being accused of shooting two men at close range as they left religious services at synagogues in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles this week.
In a letter sent to Cal State Long Beach students on Friday, Scott Apel, the university’s vice president for administration and finance, said Tran was arrested on July 3 after university police got a call about a man sitting on a campus bench who may have a firearm.
Officers responded and found Tran with a gun they later learned had been reported stolen, Apel wrote. Tran, a CSULB alumnus, was arrested without incident.
Court records show he was charged with possessing a loaded firearm on a school campus. That case is still pending, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records. His next court date had been scheduled for Feb. 28.
Tran was taken into custody Thursday in Cathedral City in the L.A. shootings case, after law enforcement authorities were able to track his car and cell phone locations, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent.
Prior to Tran’s arrest, Cathedral City police received a call of a shot fired, with the caller telling police they saw a man standing next to a vehicle holding a firearm, the affidavit stated.
The agent said in court records that Tran has a history of antisemitic behavior, citing several obscene slurs sent to a former dental school classmate and a series of messages to other classmates encouraging them to blame any inconvenience or lost revenue from the COVID-19 lockdowns on the “Iranian Jew.”
The first shooting in the Pico-Robertson area occurred Wednesday around 8:45 a.m. in the 1400 block of Shenandoah Street, where the victim was shot in the back. The second shooting was the following day in the 1600 block of South Bedford Street, with that man shot in a bicep.
Descriptions of Tran and his car, a gray 2012 Honda Civic, were provided by the victims and witnesses to both shootings, officials said.
After the second shooting, an arriving police officer snapped a photo of what authorities say turned out to be Tran and his car. Upon a search of the license plate, they found the car was registered to Tran and arrested him later that night, after also finding his cell number and tracking the phone’s movements. After his arrest, police said, they found an AK-style firearm and a handgun in his car.
In police interviews, Tran admitted to the shootings and told detectives he looked up “kosher markets” on Yelp and “decided to shoot someone in the area of the market” on Thursday, according to the affidavit. He also said he knew the men were Jewish because of their “head gear,” alluding to the head coverings that some religious Jews wear in reverence to God.
Tran previously lived in Riverside, but told detectives he had been living out of his car for the past 12 to 14 months, according to the affidavit.
Tran made his first federal court appearance Friday and was ordered to remain jailed without bond. He is scheduled to return to court March 9, when he may enter a plea to the charges.
Source: Orange County Register
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