Jaime Tran, a 30-year-old California resident, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the attempted murder of two Jewish men in Los Angeles last year, the Justice Department announced on Monday.
Tran shot and wounded the two Jewish men in separate incidents as they left synagogue services in February last year.
The 30-year-old had pled guilty in June to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of using, carrying, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
How did Jaime Tran commit the shootings?
Tran had been banned in 2023 from owning firearms, but had paid a third party $1500 to obtain a gun, the department claimed. The third party was identified by officers and has since pled guilty in court.
The morning of the shooting, Tran had searched online for kosher supermarkets nearby. It was based on this search that Tran elected to drive to Pico-Robertson, where he identified the victim by his kippur (Jewish skullcaps).
After shooting the first victim, Tran fled the scene only to return the following morning, on February 16, and shoot another Jewish man.
Police apprehended Tran a day later after someone reported witnessing someone discharge a firearm near a motel.
The government argued that had police not apprehended Tran on February 17, “[h]ad defendant not been caught the night of his second shooting, his campaign of terror would likely have continued.”
Both of Tran’s victims survived the shootings.
Comments on the sentencing
“I believe that without being a victim of a crime like this yourself it’s difficult to really understand when you’ve been traumatized, when you’ve been shot, when someone makes an attempt at your life,” one of the victims said, according to the LA Times. “I think 40 years is very lenient for an attempt on two people’s lives.”
Tran’s attorney Katherine T. Corrigan reportedly claimed he had been suffering from mental health issues.
“This case is a stark reminder of the tragic impact that mental illness can have on the life of the ill person, and the terrible consequences it can cause to the victims of mental health-driven conduct,” Corrigan said.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland commented “After years of spewing antisemitic vitriol, the defendant planned and carried out a two-day attack attempting to murder Jews leaving synagogue in Los Angeles.
“Vile acts of antisemitic hatred endanger the safety of individuals and entire communities, and allowing such crimes to go unchecked endangers the foundation of our democracy itself. As millions of Jewish Americans prepare to observe the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Justice Department reaffirms its commitment to aggressively confronting, disrupting, and prosecuting criminal acts motivated by antisemitism, or by hatred of any kind. No Jewish person in America should have to fear that any sign of their identity will make them the victim of a hate crime.”
Jaime Tran's history of antisemitism
The US government claimed in its sentencing submission that Tran had spent years "obsessed" with antisemitism leading up to the attack, so much so that in 2018, he left graduate school after making antisemitic comments about fellow students.
“I want you dead, Jew,” and “Someone is going to kill you, Jew” are among the messages Tran sent to fellow students as he maintained the username “k1llalljews.”
In one incident while in graduate school in 2022, Tran emailed a flyer to two dozen former classmates claiming that “EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THE COVID AGENDA IS JEWISH.”