Stay-at-home mom Malka Reich’s life has been destabilized by an alleged hate crime and terrorist attack that occurred in part in her front yard last month.
Reich, who lives in Chicago and has lived with the fear of rising anti-Semitism over the past year, said: “The trauma of witnessing a terrorist attack on my property was just terrible.” She believed authorities were “trying to cover up” important facts about the attack, which she explained to Fox News Digital.
The mother of five said she was resting at her Rogers Park home reading a cookbook on the morning of Oct. 26 while her baby was napping. When Reich spoke, her husband had left home 20 minutes earlier to take the couple’s four older children to synagogue. She “heard a gunshot,” believed to have been shot by Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a 39-year-old Orthodox Jewish man who was walking to the synagogue on Shabbat morning. Abdallahi is then suspected of firing at police and emergency workers before being shot dead and arrested.
Reich recalled looking out the window and seeing someone running in a safety vest.
“I thought maybe he could help,” she explained. But as police began to gather in the area where the man had fled, Reich realized she had seen the suspect.
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The victim, described by the Jewish Unity Fund as a “member of the Jewish community,” was reportedly shot in the shoulder in Chicago. (Fox32 Chicago)
Concerned whether the victim was her father or husband, Reich left her home to look for police. Police “didn’t tell us anything,” Reich said.
Mr. Reich ran back to the house where the baby was still sleeping.
“That’s when I heard the second shot,” she explained. “I ran downstairs and looked out the window and saw my neighbor crouching behind a tree with his dog.”
In the now infamous footage captured by Reich’s Ring camera, Reich called his neighbor and asked if he wanted to come into the house. “When he saw me, he saw the alleged shooter. To be honest, if I hadn’t said anything, he probably would have been killed,” Reich reported.
While the neighbor was running away, Reich said, “I saw the suspect come out of the shadows in the driveway. I was so close to him that without the glass between us, I could smell him.” I could have done it. I saw him leave.” Stand up and shoot your neighbor. ” Reich said the suspect appeared to be carrying a “thick” black handgun.
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Police are investigating a shooting that occurred in the West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, October 26th. (Fox32 Chicago)
“At that point, I thought he was coming back for me,” Reich said, noting a “big, proud Israeli-American flag” hanging outside his home.
Reich described the suspect walking back into her driveway before turning around and heading back to “commit suicide to police.”
Meanwhile, Reich barricaded herself in the baby’s room with a knife. She remained there until a neighbor informed her that the suspect had been captured.
Malka Reich witnessed some of the hate crimes against Jewish men in her Chicago neighborhood.
Chicago Police Department did not corroborate these details, pointing to Fox News Digital’s Oct. 31 press conference in which they declined to divulge additional facts in the case until they read the full allegations against Abdallahi next week. Abdallahi was injured in a gunfight with police and is currently hospitalized. The ministry found details that Abdallahi “planned the shooting and specifically targeted people of the Jewish faith.”
Reich praised the quick response of Chicago police, calling them “very brave” and “supportive of the Jewish community.” She also reported that “each police officer I spoke to certainly believed[the incident]was a hate crime,” but that Chicago Police Department waited to make an announcement until there was enough evidence to support the charge. .
There was also the trauma of Reich’s experience, which did not end with the incident itself. Given her proximity to the incident, Reich initially spoke to several media outlets about her experience. She found that their coverage obscured and sometimes confused the details she relayed.
She said her life since the shooting has been filled with struggles, headaches and insomnia.
“Besides the terrorism coming across the border, it’s the cover-up,” said Reich, who said he feels this is due to both the government and the media. Initial reports of the incident were limited in details as authorities declined to confirm much about the nature of the attack. Police initially did not confirm that the victim was Jewish. It took Mayor Brandon Johnson several days to acknowledge that after his initial public statement completely ignored the religious background of Mr. Abdallahi’s Jewish victims.
Illegal immigrant shot to death of Jewish man in illegal city
A Ring doorbell camera owned by Mr. Reich appeared to capture the suspect yelling something they said was in Arabic, but Chicago police said “the suspect was arrested during an exchange of gunfire with officers.” Although he admitted that there was something said from him, he has so far denied it. He confirmed his statement despite several questions from reporters.
“The statements he made during the encounter with the officers are not things we can present as evidence at this time that would support a motive for his actions towards the officers or the victim,” a law enforcement official said at a press conference. Not,” he said. This happened before any hate crime or terrorism charges were filed.
Fox News Digital’s conversations with various parties were even contradictory at times as to whether certain information about the case could be confirmed, but a full proponent will be submitted within days. More detailed information will be made public in due course.
When police finally announced the hate crime charges, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling revealed evidence showing the suspect “planned the shooting and specifically targeted people of the Jewish faith.” I made it.
Officials also did not provide much information about Abdallahi. Fox News later confirmed that he entered the United States illegally as a Mauritanian citizen, was arrested in California in March 2023, and was released to the United States.
For Reich, the trauma of being Jewish in Chicago goes back much further than Oct. 26. Reich said that while she attended Illinois Institute of Technology, there was a growing number of activists from Students for Justice in Palestine who would become “aggressive toward the Hillel table.” Ten years ago.
The October 7th attack further heightened that feeling of hatred. As anti-Israel activity has increased in the city over the past year, Reich said she is “worried every time my husband goes downtown” and “no longer goes to Northwestern or walks around the lake area.” Reporting.
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“We’ve made major changes in our lives around this issue to avoid it and protect our children from it,” Reich explained.
Although Reich’s children attend private schools, she once felt that public school was always a backup option. Today, Reich lamented, “you can’t send your child to public school if you look Jewish.”
FOX News’ Ron Blitzer, Sarah Rumpf-Witten, Greg Norman, Adam Shaw, Bill Melgin and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
