Eliyahu Moscowitz, a 24-year-old Jewish man who was a mashgiach (kosher supervisor) at a Jewel-Osco supermarket in Chicago, was murdered on Monday night, Simchat Torah.
Moscowitz, who was from a well-known Chabad family in Chicago, was taking a walk at around 10:20 pm along Loyola Park’s bike path in the Rogers Park neighborhood when a masked gunman fatally shot him once in the head.
A day earlier, 73-year-old Douglass Watts was also fatally shot in the head while walking his dogs in the same neighborhood. The shell casing found at the scene matched the shell casing at Moscowitz’s murder, leading police to believe that it was the same gunman in both cases.
Moscowitz and Watts don’t appear to have known each other and nothing was taken from them. Because Moscowitz was Jewish and Watts was gay, a hate crime has not been ruled out.
“To all the residents of the Rogers Park community, your city is standing with you, supporting you, at this moment,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a press conference. “I know firsthand the Rogers Park community is strong, is resilient and is a supportive community. We need those core values and the Police Department needs those core values at this time.”
However, Rogers Park residents are in a state of fear after the shootings.
“When you walk around the neighborhood over the last couple of days, everyone seems on edge,” Grace Hussar, a 34-year-old resident, told the Chicago Tribune. “No one is lingering. There’s like this air of panic because nobody knows who did it.”
The police will be holding a meeting on Wednesday to update the residents on the investigations.
Surveillance footage from Watts’ murder shows the alleged gunman with a scarf and hat covering his face. Police are suggesting that anyone with information on the alleged gunman go to www.cpdtip.com or call 312-744-8200.
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