Surveillance footage captured the terrifying moment two shooters opened fire Tuesday on a kosher supermarket, disrupting the lives of people on a Jersey City, New Jersey, street – and in some cases, changing them forever.
What followed was an hourslong standoff with police. By day’s end, four people were dead, including three civilians inside the store and Jersey City Police Detective Joseph Seals at a nearby cemetery.
The shooters, identified by authorities as 47-year-old David N. Anderson and 50-year-old Francine Graham, were also killed.
One surveillance video was obtained by the Orthodox Jewish news site The Yeshiva World. A second video, which law enforcement shared with community leaders, was obtained by CNN. Each is less than a minute long.
Here’s a breakdown of the moment the shooters opened fire, according to the two surveillance videos.
A rifle is raised on a city street
It’s 12:21 p.m. when the footage begins. Passersby walk up and down the sidewalk in front of the market. Some huddle under umbrellas, and a handful of people are gathered beneath an awning in front of a liquor store. Cars are parked along the street next to the sidewalk, and in the next lane, four cars wait at a stoplight.
A U-Haul truck that authorities say was driven by Anderson pulls up and parks across the street from the Jersey City Kosher Supermarket. He and Graham have just killed Seals in the Bay View Cemetery, about a mile away, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal’s office said in a news release.
Almost immediately, Anderson gets out of the truck, leaving the driver’s door ajar, the video shows. Graham exits the truck from the passenger side.
Anderson takes several steps across the street toward the market and raises a rifle, according to Grewal’s office.
The shooters open fire and bystanders flee
The video does not have sound, but seconds after Anderson gets out of the truck, bystanders duck and scatter.
Anderson walks forward with his rifle aimed at the market as people run down the sidewalk away from apparent gunfire. Others run into the street, slipping between parked cars.
The second surveillance video obtained by CNN includes sound. In this footage, filmed from a window above the market’s doorway, a burst of gunfire erupts as Anderson appears at the top of the frame and walks toward the store. Gunshot after gunshot is heard as he advances.
Graham follows behind Anderson as he steps up onto the sidewalk. She also has a rifle, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said.
At the door to the market, Anderson stops and looks back at Graham.
“The perpetrator stopped in front there, calmly opened the door with two long rifles – him and the other perpetrator – and begin firing from the street into the facility,” Fulop said.
Anderson then runs inside. Graham follows him and disappears from view.
Neither would come out alive.
One man escapes and a standoff unfolds
As Graham steps inside, a couple people on the street and sidewalk glance toward the market.
Gunshots continue to ring out after Anderson and Graham enter the store, according to the second video.
Two or three seconds later, a man runs out of the market, fleeing gunfire. He escapes across the street. A car parked along the sidewalk pulls into traffic as the cars at the stoplight drive away.
The man who escaped had been shot, authorities said Wednesday, without giving his name. “The survivor was able to escape the store at the beginning of the incident,” Grewal said.
But three people couldn’t get out. The store’s co-owner, Mindy Ferencz, 31; Moshe Deutsch, a 24-year-old customer; and Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, 49, a store employee, were killed inside, Grewal said.
Police responded, and a standoff lasted through the afternoon.
The shooters ultimately were found dead inside.
Diving into why it happened
Authorities have not determined a motive for the attack. But mayors of Jersey City and New York City believe it should be considered a hate crime.
“My sentiment is that it should be viewed as a hate crime,” Fulop said Wednesday, adding, “There’s no question it was an attack on the Jewish community.”
Investigators are examining a note found inside the U-Haul that contained anti-Semitic and anti-police writings, a law enforcement source told CNN. Similar sentiments were found on a social media account linked to the shooters, the source said.
At least one shooter had ties to the Black Hebrew Israelites movement, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing a law enforcement official. Some members of the movement have expressed anti-Semitic sentiments in the past.
CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz and Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report
