Murders of 2 Israelis in Los Angeles on the same day said to be unrelated

JTA — When news broke that two Israeli nationals were found murdered on the same day in Los Angeles this week, a string of social media accounts posted nearly identical messages warning, “They are literally HUNTING down Jews.”

The killings came as reports show surging antisemitism in the United States. In recent years, Los Angeles has been the site of dueling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests, along with violent scuffles between demonstrators. In early 2023, a man targeting Jews in the city shot two men exiting a synagogue on consecutive days. Later that year, there was a home invasion in Los Angeles that appears to have been motivated by antisemitism.

“It’s terrifying. These do seem like targeted attacks,” Jennifer Feldman, a local resident living near one of the murder sites, told Los Angeles magazine. “Two men with ties to Israel killed on the same day feels frightening to say the least.”

But in this instance, several days into the investigations, and following the arrests of three suspects in one of the killings, there appears to be no indication that the murders were linked. Nor is there information on the motivations of the perpetrators.

The Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed sources in the Los Angeles Police Department, reported that the two killings are not connected.

The Secure Community Network, a group that coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide and monitors for antisemitic threats, said it is in the fact-gathering stage and has nothing yet to share about the situation. Los Angeles’s Jewish federation did not respond to requests for comment.

Aleksandre Modebadze was found first, following a 911 report by an identified woman. He was bound and beaten to death inside his home in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. He was a 47-year-old Israeli who had been living in the United States for 15 years, according to what neighbors told the Jewish Journal.

LAPD later announced the arrest of three suspects in Modebadze’s murder, all Georgian nationals, with the help of the FBI Fugitive Task Force: Paata Kochyashvili, 38, Zaza Otarashvili, 46, and Besiki Khutsishvili, 52. They have each been charged with murder and are being held on a $2 million bail.

Less than 12 hours after finding Modebadze’s body, police officers responding to a request for a welfare check in a different part of Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley discovered Menashe Hidra’s body in his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment. He had a puncture wound to the head. Hidra, a businessman known as Menny, has been identified as the brother of the warden of Israel’s Nitzan Prison, Moshe Hidra, according to the Jewish Journal.

The LAPD has released footage of a person it believes broke into Hidra’s apartment from an adjacent vacant unit. The suspect was described as a black-haired Hispanic man in his 30s, standing between 1.67 and 1.75 meters (5’6”-5’9”) and weighing between 80 and 90 kilograms (180-200 pounds). The police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that it has no comment beyond the information already released.