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.
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