Man Accused of Firing Blank Rounds Inside a Synagogue, Police Say

A man was charged on Friday with disturbing a religious gathering after the police said he walked into a San Francisco synagogue with a handgun and apparently fired blanks before fleeing, the latest unnerving episode involving a Jewish house of worship.

The man, whose name was not made public by the San Francisco Police Department, appeared to have fired an imitation firearm at the synagogue, the Schneerson Jewish Center, around 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday, the police said on Saturday.

“Officers seized expended casings that were fired,” which are “being investigated as possible blanks,” the police said.

The police said they had linked the same man to another episode the day before in which he entered a theater and brandished a gun before leaving. In both instances, the police said, there were no injuries or reports of damage.

The encounter with the man at the Jewish Center comes at a time when antisemitism and bias attacks are on the rise across the country.

On Jan. 29, a man wearing a ski mask lit the wick of a Molotov cocktail and hurled it at the front door of a synagogue in Bloomfield, N.J. On Wednesday, the man, Nicholas Malindretos, of Clifton, N.J., was charged with firebombing the building.

Surveillance footage from the Schneerson Jewish Center, which was aired on ABC 7 News, a television station in San Francisco, showed the moment when the man entered the building.

The footage, which has no audio, shows the man, who is wearing a baseball cap, walking in the front door. He appears to say something to the people inside as he brandishes a handgun. He quickly fires, with rapid flashes emanating from the gun.

Those inside appear stunned. They flinch, and some lower their heads or cover their ears, the footage shows. The man says something else, waves goodbye and leaves.

The Jewish Center did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on Saturday. The Police Department also did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Seth Brysk, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Central Pacific, said in a statement on Thursday that the organization was “alarmed at reports of a brazen armed attack.”

“Gunfire at a house of worship is an act of terror and underscores the daily threat faced by the Jewish community,” he said. “This incident is a further reminder that antisemitism remains a clear and present danger to the Bay Area and Jewish community.”

The Anti-Defamation League said it recorded 2,717 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2021, including instances of harassment, vandalism and assault.

That was a 34 percent increase from the 2,026 incidents recorded in 2020. It was highest number on record since the organization began tracking antisemitic acts in 1979.