Synagogue suspect mentally ill, family says
Seattle man charged in possible hate attack near L.A. worship hall has schizophrenia.
A Seattle man has been charged with two counts of assault in connection with a possible hate crime that took place near a Los Angeles synagogue last week, but his family said Tuesday he had been battling schizophrenia for years and bore no hatred toward the Jewish community.
Mohamed Abdi Mohamed, 32, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with a hate-crime enhancement in a downtown courtroom Tuesday and will remain in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Mohamed rented a car in Seattle on Friday and drove to Los Angeles, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Ceballos, who also said Mohamed had worked as a Lyft driver. Investigators did not say whether Mohamed targeted Congregation Bais Yehuda, but Ceballos said Mohamed did not have ties to the Los Angeles area.
Kaelan Richards, Lyft’s senior manager of policy and safety, said Mohamed was not driving for the ride-hailing company at the time of the attack, but he has since been permanently banned.
Mohamed was taken into custody Friday after Los Angeles police officers said he drove past the Hancock Park synagogue and shouted anti-Semitic slurs and other profanity toward several Jewish people who were leaving a service, LAPD Deputy Chief Horace Frank said Monday.
Frank said Mohamed made a U-turn and barreled toward two men — identified only by their ages, 37 and 57 — near La Brea and Oakwood avenues. Both men escaped unharmed.
Mohamed tried to flee but got into a car crash and was arrested later.
Federal prosecutors may consider possible hate crime or domestic terror charges, police said, though a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
In a statement released Tuesday, Mohamed’s relatives said he held no hatred toward the Jewish community. He had been suffering from schizophrenia since at least 2015, medical records reviewed by The Times say.
“He was recently seeking treatment in King County [in Washington] through a program designed to provide behavioral health services to individuals with the most severe level of mental health conditions,” the statement read. “However, he did not receive the intensive medical care he needed.”
A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Dec. 10.
james.queally@latimes.com Times staff photographer Francine Orr contributed to this report.