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 men in separate incidences as they left synagogue services last February.
The 30-year-old had pleaded 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 $1,500 to obtain two guns, the department claimed. The third party was identified by officers and has since pleaded guilty in court. According to the LA Times, the two firearms were a .380 pistol and an AK-47-style semiautomatic rifle.
The morning of the shooting, February 15, 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 kippa (Jewish skullcaps).
After shooting the first victim, Tran fled the scene only to return the following morning to 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 defendant not been caught the night of his second shooting, his campaign of terror would likely have continued.”
Both of Tran’s victims survived their attempted murder.
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 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 that, “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,” Garland said. “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 the convicted attempted murderer 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.”