Man facing terror charges for shooting US Jew on way to synagogue dies in apparent suicide
Cook County Jail’s Sheriff’s Office says Sidi Mohammad Abdallahi was found in his cell after hanging himself, no previous indication he planned to take his life
A man facing terrorism and hate crimes charges in the United States over the October shooting of a Jewish man walking to a synagogue in Chicago was found dead Saturday in the medical facility in the jail where he was being held.
Sidi Mohammad Abdallahi, 22, a Mauritanian national, was seriously injured in a firefight with police following the shooting and had been held in the prison infirmary.
The Cook County Jail’s Sheriff’s Office said Sunday Abdallahi was found dead in an “apparent suicide attempt by hanging” in his cell at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Cermak Health Services. He had reportedly been treated at the location for the past two weeks.
Emergency services took Abdallahi to Mt. Sinai Hospital where staff declared him dead.
There had been no prior indications Abdallahi was at risk of taking his own life, there was no evidence of foul play, and medical officials would be conducting an autopsy, the sheriff’s office said.
Alderman Debra Silverstein, who has said that she attended the same synagogue as the victim and in whose district the shooting happened, told the Chicago Sun-Times she hoped the development would “bring a small measure of closure” to the community.
“But we would still like to find out all the details about what happened,” she noted.
The Sun-Times reported that at a detention hearing on November 22, prosecutors said that Abdallahi had marked out the locations of several Chicago synagogues and Jewish schools in the days before the shooting.
Abdallahi was charged with attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm at a peace officer or firefighter, aggravated discharge of a firearm, hate crimes and terrorism.
During the October 26 incident, police say he shot a 39-year-old Orthodox Jewish man whose identity has not been released, while the latter was walking to Congregation KINS in Chicago’s heavily Jewish neighborhood of West Rogers Park, hitting him in the shoulder.
Abdallahi was shot in a subsequent firefight with police and taken to a hospital in critical condition. The victim was released from the hospital later the same day.
The shooting led to criticism of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, in the latest chapter in the official’s rocky relationship with the local Jewish community, after his statement of condemnation of the shooting did not mention the fact the victim was Jewish.
