3 Baltimore teenagers charged with murder of Israeli man

Efraim Gordon, 31, was fatally shot last month in apparent robbery; he was visiting US for a cousin’s wedding

By AP 6 June 2021, 1:09 am

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Efraim Gordon, an Israeli man shot dead in Baltimore on May 2, 2021. (Courtesy)

BALTIMORE — Two juveniles and an 18-year-old have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of a 31-year-old Israeli man who was visiting relatives in Baltimore last month.

Baltimore police said William Clinton III, 18, and a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old are being held without bail in the May 3 fatal shooting of Efraim Gordon. He was shot multiple times in what police said appeared to be a robbery.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Gordon had traveled from Israel to Baltimore for a week’s visit to attend his cousin’s wedding. When he was shot in the Glen neighborhood, he was walking back to his aunt and uncle’s house, Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer previously said.

Law enforcement and “the cooperation of the community … made these arrests possible,“ Schleifer wrote in a Facebook post after police announced the arrests.

“Countless people” came forward with information and doorbell camera footage, Schleifer said in an interview.

Screen capture from video Ella Gordon, center, and other family members as during a press briefing about the killing of her brother, Efraim, who was shot dead in the US, seen on May 5, 2021. (YouTube)

Gordon’s family raised $61,000 to return Gordon’s body to Israel and to offer a $30,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest. In an update on the fundraising campaign page, organizers said Gordon “has been buried respectfully.”

“No family should be forced to endure the insufferable pain of losing a loved one to gun violence,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement.

The city has had 141 homicides so far this year, police say.

Court records did not list an attorney for Clinton who could comment on his behalf.