Suspect Arrested in Death of Jewish Man at California ‘Pro-Palestine’ Rally
An autopsy ruled Paul Kessler’s death a homicide. The medical examiner concluded a blunt-force head injury killed him.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, 50, in the death of Paul Kessler, a Jewish man, at an anti-Israel rally in Thousand Oaks, CA.
The police charged Alnaji with involuntary manslaughter. His bail is set at $1 million.
The department did not mention if authorities will add a hate crime charge.
An autopsy ruled Kessler’s death a homicide. The medical examiner concluded a blunt-force head injury killed Kessler.
People on the scene claimed that Alnaji, a computer science professor at Ventura County Community College, hit Kessler with a megaphone:
At the scene, Alnjai was filmed telling a police officer he was trying to hit Kessler’s phone away.
But witnesses including Kessler’s friend, Jonathan Oswaks, say he punched him with his megaphone.
‘All of a sudden, I see a punch…the white megaphone flying through the air,’ Oswaks, speaking at the scene of the protest last week, said.
Oswaks implored the police to act sooner.
Alnaji stayed at the scene after Kessler was taken away in an ambulance. He later cooperated with police at his home.
Videos taken after he fell show Palestine supporters continuing to chant against Israel, and some making antisemitic remarks about Hitler.
BREAKING: A pro-Palestine protester has been arrested after killing a 65 year old Jewish man by hitting him over the head with a megaphone during a verbal altercation in the Thousand Oaks area of LA.
The man suffered from a brain hemorrhage as a result & succumbed to his… pic.twitter.com/sCY4MgraGB— Leftism (@LeftismForU) November 7, 2023
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Comments
For once they got it right. As for hate crime…..that will interesting.
He looks like he drives a white panel van and buys candy in bulk.
He was not there for love. Manslaughter is too light. It’s not like his wife was cheating.
Although, I wouldn’t blame her if she was.
So the authorities are confused as to whether this attack was a hate crime at a Palestinian hatred of Jews demonstration?
Yes. He may have hit him simply because he was getting in his face, and not because he’s a Jew.
While I admit I’m not very familiar with how the statutes are written & applied in California, I am a surprised they charged whim with involuntary manslaughter rather than voluntary manslaughter, which is the more appropriate charge, IMO.
In the state I live, you won’t generally qualify for involuntary manslaughter if you’ve done something that is inherently dangerous – violently striking a senior citizen over the head with a megaphone – that unintentionally leads to death,. That is a clearly ‘inherently dangerous’ action. But, maybe the statutes are just very different in California. Maybe he would have had to have used something like a club or brick to qualify for voluntary manslaughter under California law.
The blow to the head was probably not fatal… but the fall was. … at least a supportable position. That said , he crossed multiple lanes of traffic to engage the demonstrators. That could wobble this to voluntary… but in California this is a tug of war between the State’s (Dems) two voting blocks. I doubt “hate” will be used…. both sides get something…King Soloman decision.
I get what you’re saying about the blow not being fatal. But, in the case of Lauren Pazienza, the drunk woman who pushed an elderly vocal coach down the subway stairs in Manhattan earlier this year, she was charged with ‘Manslaughter in the First Degree,’ which more closely approximates ‘voluntary manslaughter’ in most jurisdictions. Clearly, it wasn’t the ‘push’ that killed the elderly woman but rather, it was the falling on the ground that did her in. Pazienza eventually accepted a plea agreement that sent her to prison for 8.5-years.
In California, the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter is (I believe) no more than 3 or 4-years. That seems….light for what happened here particularly if what you’ve said about approaching the decedent from across the street is accurate.
If Solomon had been more concerned about the “optics” than justice.
Where is the non-stop wall to wall media outrage like for the woman killed at Charlottesville??
The Charlottesville guy rear ended a car that rear ended a van that struck the woman…. and he got “murder”. If the present guy was not a loyal Dem… the same logic would apply… murder.
They will twist themselves in knots to keep this guy from being charged with murder and the DA will try to get this guy as light a sentence as possible
His fat ass needs life in prison. Thirty or forty years, into his 80s or 90’s would be a wonderful sentence.
Drawn and quartered would make weight of the caskets more reasonable.
“Alnjai was filmed telling a police officer he was trying to hit Kessler’s phone away.”
Also, he was “just funnin’.”
Involuntary manslaughter??? That is ridiculous!! Are they claiming the guy didn’t mean to injure him when he hit him over the head with a megaphone???
I am pretty sure that in California the defendent’s name will be considered a mitigating circumstance and prosecution will be dropped.
Subotai Bahadur