[IsraelTimes] Jaime Tran, who pleaded guilty in June to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill, acquired guns through intermediary after he was prohibited from buying them himself
A man who attempted to murder two Jews leaving synagogue in Los Angeles on consecutive days last year has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Jaime Tran, 30, a former California resident and dental student, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of “using, carrying and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence,” a statement from the Justice Department said.
He dropped out of dental school — or was expelled, it’s not clear — due to mental health issues that drove him to latch on to increasingly virulent Jew-hate as an explanation for Covid and beyond, until he ended up trying to kill two of them. According to law enforcement, In February 2023, Tran drove to Pico-Robertson, a heavily Jewish neighborhood in LA, in search of Jewish victims, and shot a man who was leaving a synagogue and wearing a kippah. The next morning, Tran shot another man wearing a kippah and leaving a different synagogue nearby.
Both victims were injured in the attacks and survived. Tran was arrested two days later.
According to the indictment, Tran had a long history of making violent antisemitic comments and threats. In the months leading up to his attacks, Tran repeatedly called and texted a former classmate, sending messages including “Someone is going to kill you, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew,” and “Burn in an oven chamber you bitch Jew.”
As of 2023, Tran was prohibited from buying firearms due to previous mental health holds, according to a statement from the Justice Department. But the statement said that around mid-February 2023, he acquired at least two guns using an intermediary, and then “used the internet to research locations with a ‘kosher market.’”
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