Man accused in alleged antisemitic attack in S.F. ordered to remain in jail without bail

A man charged with a hate crime in an alleged antisemitic attack in San Francisco's Marina District was ordered Wednesday to remain in jail without bail.
Juan Diaz-Rivas, 36, faces two counts of assault, with allegations that the attack was a hate crime and caused serious injuries to the victim. Wearing an orange jumpsuit, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday.
His court-appointed attorney, Adam Gasner, had asked the court to release him from custody on his own recognizance. Gasner said Diaz-Rivas, a Sonoma County resident, is employed at a restaurant, takes care of his father and has no criminal record. As for the alleged attack, Gasner said 'half of the story is being told.'
Assistant District Attorney Jamal Anderson pushed back, calling for Diaz-Rivas to remain in custody based on the nature of the alleged attack. 'We believe the defendant does pose a public safety risk,' said Anderson, who shared an account of the alleged attack.
Judge Harry Jacobs said he believes Diaz-Rivas poses a risk to the Jewish community and general public. The alleged remarks, Jacobs said, 'clearly sound like antisemitism.'
The incident occurred on Fillmore Street near Moulton Street around 2:20 a.m. Saturday.
The victim, 27, and a friend were sitting on a curb waiting for an Uber after a night out when a man started shouting, 'f— Jews, free Palestine,' the friend, Alana Gans, 28, told the Chronicle in an interview Sunday.
When Gans told the man she was Jewish and asked him to leave, the man walked over and said, 'f— you,' Gans recounted.
When she stood up, so did her friend, who got in between her and the man, Gans said. Others nearby recorded on their cellphones, laughed and shouted, 'f— Jews,' too, Gans said.
As she tried to pull her friend's arm to walk away, the group sucker-punched and kicked her friend on the ground, repeating the anti-Jewish comments and laughing, Gans said.
According to prosecutors, the victim fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness. Gans said her friend suffered a swollen lip, as well as two bumps on the front of his head and a third on the back of his head.
The men also attacked an employee from the nearby Balboa Cafe who tried to intervene, Gans said. Prosecutors said the worker tried to intervene when he heard the commotion and antisemitic remarks. The employee was punched and kicked, too, according to Gans and prosecutors.
The assailants ran away, only to return and yell 'f— those Jews,' Gans said, adding that the attack lasted about 30 seconds. When officers showed up, she pointed out the suspects.
Anderson, the prosecutor, said in court that some of the others were not yet identified.
Outside the courtroom, Gasner said he believes the alleged remarks and assault were a 'result of provocation,' although he would not elaborate. 'I don't believe that there is any deep-seated root cause beyond that for these types of comments. Certainly no manifesto or no greater objective here from what we know right now,' he said.
He added that he does not believe Diaz-Rivas is a danger to the victims or the public. 'We look forward to the whole story being clear,' Gasner said.
Diaz-Rivas' next court hearing was set for July 2, when his custody will be reconsidered.

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USA Today

26 minutes ago

• USA Today

Two days of terror: How the Minnesota shooter evaded police and got caught

NEW HOPE, Minnesota, June 21 (Reuters) - Vance Boelter's disguise wasn't perfect. The silicone mask was somewhat loose-fitting and his SUV's license plate simply read "POLICE" in black letters. But it was good enough on a poorly lit suburban street in the dead of night. At 2:36 a.m. on Saturday, 30 minutes after authorities say Boelter shot and seriously injured Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, he paused behind the wheel of the SUV near the home of another senator, Ann Rest, in the city of New Hope. The SUV was stocked with weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, as well as fliers advertising a local anti-Trump rally scheduled for later Saturday and a written list of names of people he appeared to be targeting. Senator Rest, prosecutors would later say, was among those Boelter set out to kill on June 14. As Boelter sat in the SUV down the street from Rest's home, another police car - this one an actual police car - approached. A female officer from the New Hope police department, after hearing about the Hoffman shootings, had come out to check on Rest. Seeing the SUV, complete with flashing lights and police-style decals, she believed the man inside was a fellow officer. But when she attempted to speak to him - one officer greeting another - she got no response. Instead, the man inside the SUV with police markings simply stared ahead. The New Hope officer drove on, deciding to go ahead and check on Rest. Rest would later say the New Hope officer's initiative probably saved her life, an opinion shared by New Hope Police Chief Timothy Hoyt. "With limited information, she went up there on her own to check on the welfare of our senator," Hoyt told Reuters. "She did the right thing." The brief interaction in New Hope underscored the carefully planned nature of Boelter's pre-dawn rampage and how his impersonation of a police officer, including body armor, a badge and a tactical vest, confounded the initial attempts to stop him. After the encounter with the New Hope officer, Boelter, 57, drove away from the scene, moving on to his next target. Police would pursue him for another 43 hours. In the process, they would draw in a phalanx of state and federal agencies, in what ranks as the largest manhunt in Minnesota history and added to the sense of disorientation in a nation already grappling with protests over immigration, the forcible removal of a U.S. Senator from a press conference and a rare military parade in Washington. Federal prosecutors say they may seek the death penalty for Boelter, who has been charged with murdering two people and trying to kill two others, in what Governor Tim Walz has called a "politically motivated" attack. Prosecutors said they are still investigating the motive and whether any others were involved. Boelter has yet to enter a plea. Manny Atwal, a public defender representing Boelter, said he was reviewing the case and declined to comment. This reconstruction of the manhunt is based on court documents, statements by law enforcement officials, and interviews with a Boelter friend, local police officers, lawmakers, and residents of the impacted neighborhoods. While the events unfolded like something out of a TV crime drama, there were parallels with past shooting sprees, criminal justice experts said. James Fitzgerald, a former FBI criminal profiler, said he would not be surprised if Boelter studied a mass shooting in Canada in 2020, when a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people in the province of Nova Scotia. "These guys always do research beforehand. They want to see how other killers were successful, how they got caught," said Fitzgerald, who helped the FBI capture the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski in 1996. "And, of course, a way you're going to buy yourself some time is to pose as a police officer." Hoffman Shooting The violence began at the Hoffman's brick split-level home in Champlin, a leafy, middle-class suburb of Minneapolis. With his emergency lights flashing, Boelter pulled into the driveway just after 2:00 a.m. and knocked on the door. "This is the police. Open the door," Boelter shouted repeatedly, according to an FBI affidavit. Senator Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, soon determined Boelter was not a real police officer. Boelter shot Senator Hoffman nine times, and then fired on Yvette, who shielded her daughter from being hit. As Boelter fled the scene, the daughter called 911. The Hoffmans were on a target list of more than 45 federal and state elected officials in Minnesota, all Democrats, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson told a briefing on Monday. Boelter voted for President Donald Trump, was a Christian and did not like abortion, according to his part-time roommate, David Carlson. Carlson said Boelter did not seem angry about politics. Thompson said Boelter "stalked his victims like prey" but that the writings he left behind did not point to a coherent motive. "His crimes are the stuff of nightmares," he said. "His crimes are the stuff of nightmares," Thompson said. After the Hoffman's, the next address plugged into Boelter's GPS system was a lawmaker about 9 miles away in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove. Surveillance cameras from the home of State Representative Kristin Bahner show a masked Boelter ringing the doorbell at 2:24 a.m. and shouting "Open the door. This is the police. We have a warrant," the FBI affidavit says. Bahner and her family were not at home. From there, Boelter moved on to New Hope and the close encounter with the officer who had dispatched to Rest's home. After that, he wasn't seen by police again until he arrived at the residence of Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the state House, in Brooklyn Park. Sensing that Hortman might be a target, Brooklyn Park police officers had decided to check on her. When they arrived at 3:30 a.m. they saw a black Ford Explorer outside her house, its police-style lights flashing. Boelter was near the front door. When Boelter saw the officers exit their squad car, he fired at them. He then ran through the front door on the house, where he killed Melissa and Mark Hortman, her husband. When Boelter left the Hortman's home, he abandoned his fake-police SUV. Inside the car, police found a 9mm handgun, three AK-47 assault rifles, fliers advertising a local anti-Trump "No Kings" rally and a notebook with names of people who appear to have been targets, according to court documents. From that point, Boelter was on the run. Little has been revealed about his movements during the period, although police say he visited his part-time residence in north Minneapolis. He also sent texts. In one, to his family's group chat, Boelter writes, "Dad went to war last night". In another, to a close friend, Boelter says he may be dead soon. Police also know that by early morning on Saturday Boelter had met a man at a Minneapolis bus stop who agreed to sell him an e-bike and a Buick sedan for $900. The two drove to a bank where Boelter withdrew $2,200 from his account. A security camera shows Boelter wearing a cowboy hat. But it took until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday for authorities to close in. Police searching the area near Boelter's family home in the rural community of Green Isle, discovered the abandoned Buick, along with a cowboy hat and handwritten letter to the FBI in which Boelter admitted to the shootings, prosecutors said. Law enforcement scrambled to set up a perimeter surrounding the area, SWAT teams and search dogs were deployed, and drones were put in the air. It was the trail camera of a resident, however, that provided the final clue, capturing an image of Boelter around 7:00 p.m., allowing officers to narrow their search. Two hours later, the pursuit ended with Boelter crawling to police. He was armed but surrendered without a fight. (reporting by Nathan Layne and Tom Polansek in Minneapolis and Joseph Ax in New York; editing by Paul Thomasch and Nick Zieminski)

New York Post

2 hours ago

• New York Post

Why Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' is failing the migrant crisis

The violent anti-ICE riots that erupted in Los Angeles last week were the inevitable result of years of Washington's failure to enforce immigration law. As masked mobs torched government property and assaulted officers tasked with upholding the rule of law, one thing became clear: the border crisis isn't just at the border. 4 The US needs upwards of 1,000 additional immigration judges to tackle the migrant crisis effectively. But the funding is currently lacking. Bloomberg via Getty Images President Trump vowed to restore order through mass deportations — and he can, but only if Congress does its part. That means recognizing the core problem that's too often ignored: without a functioning immigration court system, no one can actually be deported. Right now, more than 4 million migrant cases are languishing in limbo, inviting new waves of illegal immigration. The message this sends is to cross the border and work freely for up to 10 years while waiting for a hearing until it is inhumane to be deported. Advertisement Congress is starting to notice. Buried in the House's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' is $1.25 billion in funding to hire 250 immigration judges and their staff. Extra judges is welcome news, but the appropriation is insufficient. According to my estimates, we need 1,000 more immigration judges to eliminate the court backlog by the end of President Trump's term. Although the bill allocates over $100 billion for border security, it almost entirely ignores the greatest obstacle to deportations: the underfunded immigration court system. 4 President Trump has allocated $1.25 billion for new judges, but that number will barely dent the problem ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock What would it really cost to get the immigration court system back on track? Hiring 250 judges annually carries a price tag of $4.7 billion over five years, about three dollars per American. This would give every immigrant due process and help send home the millions who are legally deportable. That is scarcely a rounding error in the federal budget, yet it is the difference between enforcing the law and surrendering to chaos. The OBBB as it stands offers only a quarter of what is required. Yet immigration courts are only half the story. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is sitting on 1.4 million affirmative asylum applications — cases filed by people who arrive in the US on a visa. Because asylum-seekers pay no filing fee, the backlog is funded almost entirely by jacking up costs on high-skilled immigrants, who now shoulder a $600 surcharge every time their employers file paperwork. This is unfair and insufficient. Advertisement 4 The Department of Homeland Security has offered illegal migrants $1,000 to help them 'self-deport.' Ron Sachs – CNP On this issue, Congress is doing exactly what it should and is proposing a $1,000 asylum filing fee. Under current conditions, such a fee would raise $400 million in annual revenue — enough to hire hundreds of asylum officers. Legitimate asylees already spend thousands on legal assistance, so costs are not a new barrier. Rather, the costs ensure that those who benefit from asylum bear the burden of processing applications, instead of other legal immigrants. The Republican-proposed fee also ensures that fraudulent asylum applications are a less attractive path for illegal immigrants. To further dissuade fraudulent asylum, Trump's USCIS and Executive Office for Immigration Review should revive the last-in, first-out rule they implemented in his first term. This rule would process the most recent asylum filings before older ones. The policy proved effective since would-be border crossers and visa overstayers learned that bogus asylum claims would be denied quickly, thus shrinking the inflow. Reinstated alongside a surge of judges and asylum officers, last-in-first-out would end future illegal immigration while working through the backlog of current illegal immigrants. 4 Until sufficient resources are provided to adequately process both new and backlogged migrant cases, protests such as the anti-ICE riots will continue. Advertisement Critics scoff that nearly $5 billion is too much and argue for scrapping the deportation court process in favor of broader executive authority. Yet one court ruling after another proves that any rewrite of asylum law still needs 60 votes in the Senate. The quickest and most practical solution is to hire more immigration judges and deport those ordered to leave. The president and the Department of Homeland Security also wisely help migrants self-deport by paying for their flight home and giving them $1,000, saving the much larger cost of deportation. President Trump has promised mass deportations; his allies in Congress say they want that. The irony is that the price tag for making good on that pledge is shockingly small, but only if lawmakers write a bigger number into the bill currently on the floor. If Republicans are serious about restoring order at the border and in the cities the radical left is rioting, they should prove it by signing the check and hiring immigration judges. Daniel Di Martino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a PhD candidate in Economics at Columbia University.

Washington Post

7 hours ago

• Washington Post

A deadly race for food: Palestinians in Gaza risk harrowing journey day after day

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Each day, Palestinians in Gaza run a deadly gantlet in hopes of getting food. Israeli troops open barrages of gunfire toward crowds crossing military zones to get to the aid, they say, and knife-wielding thieves wait to ambush those who succeed. Palestinians say lawlessness is growing as they are forced into a competition to feed their families. A lucky few manage to secure some packets of lentils, a jar of Nutella or a bag of flour. Many return empty-handed and must attempt the ordeal again the next day. 'This isn't aid. It's humiliation. It's death,' said Jamil Atili, his face shining with sweat as he made his way back last week from a food center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation , an Israeli-backed private contractor. He had suffered a knife cut across his cheek amid the scramble for food and said a contractor guard pepper-sprayed him in the face. Still, he emerged with nothing for his 13 family members. 'I have nothing to feed my children,' he said, nearly crying. 'My heart is broken.' Israel began allowing food into Gaza this past month after cutting it off completely for 10 weeks, though United Nations officials say it is not enough to stave off starvation . Most of the supplies go to GHF, which operates four food distribution points inside Israeli military zones. A trickle of aid goes to the U.N. and humanitarian groups. Both systems are mired in chaos. Daily gunfire by Israeli troops toward crowds on the roads heading to the GHF centers has killed several hundred people and wounded hundreds more in past weeks, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. At the same time, in past weeks, hungry crowds overwhelm most of the U.N.'s truck convoys and strip away the supplies. Israeli troops have opened fire to disperse crowds waiting for trucks near military zones, witnesses say — and on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed , according to the ministry. The Israeli military says it is investigating. 'I don't see how it can get any worse, because it is already apocalyptic. But somehow it does get worse,' said Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian affairs office. Israel says it has only fired warning shots at suspects who approached its forces along the roads to the GHF food centers. Palestinian witnesses say the troops fire to prevent crowds from moving past a certain point before the centers open or because people leave the road designated by the military. They describe heavy barrages from tanks, snipers, drones and even guns mounted on cranes. Asked how its soldiers control movement, the military told The Associated Press its 'operational conduct ... is accompanied by systematic learning processes.' It said it was looking into safety measures like fences and road signs. GHF says no shootings have taken place in or near its hubs. A spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity under GHF rules, said incidents take place before sites open involving aid-seekers who move 'during prohibited times ... or trying to take a short cut.' They said GHF is trying to improve safety, in part by changing opening times to daylight hours. Israel intends for GHF to replace the U.N.-led aid network in Gaza, contending that Hamas diverts large amounts of aid from it. The U.N. denies the claim. Thousands of people must walk miles to reach the GHF centers, three of which are in the far south outside the city of Rafah. Palestinians said the danger begins when the crowds enter the Israeli military zone encompassing Rafah . Mohammed Saqer, a father of three who risked the trip multiple times, said that when he went last week, tanks were firing over the heads of the crowds as drone announcements told everyone to move back. It's 'like it was 'Squid Game,'' Saqer said, referring to the dystopian thriller TV series in which contestants risk their lives to win a prize. Just raising your head might mean death, he said. He and others crawled forward, then left the main road. A shot rang out nearby and they ducked, he said. They found a young man on the ground, shot in the back. The others assumed he was dead, but Saqer felt his chest — it was still warm, and he found a pulse. They carried him to a point where a car could pick him up. Saqer said he stood for a moment, traumatized by the scene. Then people shouted that the site had opened. Everyone broke into a crazed run, he said. He saw several people wounded on the ground. One man, bleeding from his abdomen, reached out his hand, pleading for help. No one stopped. 'Everyone is just running to get to the aid, to get there first,' Saqer said. Omar al-Hobi described the same scene the four times he went last week. Twice, he returned empty-handed; once, he managed to grab a pack of lentils. On the fourth day, he was determined to secure flour for his three children and pregnant wife. He said he and others inched their way forward under tank fire. He saw several people shot in the legs. One man fell bleeding to the ground, apparently dead, he said. Horrified, al-Hobi froze, unable to move, 'but I remembered I have to feed my children .' He took cover in a greenhouse, then heard the announcement that the center was open and began to run. At the center, food boxes are stacked on the ground in an area surrounded by fences and earthen berms. Thousands rush in to grab what they can in a frantic melee. You have to move fast, Saqer said. Once supplies run out, some of those who came too late rob those leaving. He swiftly tore open a box and loaded the contents into a sack — juice, chickpeas, lentils, cheese, beans, flour and cooking oil. Then he took off running. There's only one route in and out of the center. But, knowing thieves waited outside, Saqer clambered over a berm, running the risk of being fired on by Israeli troops. 'It all depends on the soldiers' mood. If they are in a bad mood … they will shoot at me. If not, they will let me be,' he said. Heba Jouda said she saw a group of men beat up a boy of 12 or 13 years old and take his food as she left one of the Rafah centers. Another time, she said, thieves attacked an older man, who hugged his sack, weeping that his children had no food. They sliced his arm with a knife and ran off with the sack. Al-Hobi said he was trampled in the scramble for boxes. He managed to grab a bag of rice, a packet of macaroni. He snagged flour — but much of it was ruined in the chaos. At his family tent outside Khan Younis, his wife, Anwaar Saleh, said she will ration it all to make it last a week or so. 'We hope he doesn't have to go back. His life is the most important thing,' she said. Al-Hobi remains shaken — both by his brushes with death and the callousness that the race for food has instilled in everyone. 'No one will show you mercy these days. Everybody fends for themselves.' ___ El Deeb reported from Beirut, Keath from Cairo. AP correspondent Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.