| Shooting Outside W. Boca Chabad House | | |
Solemn Rosh Hashana services in a storefront synagogue west of Boca Raton to mark the Jewish new year came to a shocking halt Tuesday afternoon when two feuding congregants walked outside and one shot the other twice in the chest at point-blank range.
About 200 worshipers in the Chabad Weltman Synagogue heard gunfire just after the reading of a traditional prayer that discusses God's judgment of who will live and who will die.
"This wasn't how we thought we would be celebrating the new year," said Mordechai Sufrin, 70.
Jonathan Samuels, 44, was felled just outside the doorway of the synagogue, in the Boca Hamptons Plaza in the 9000 block of Kimberly Boulevard. Samuels was listed in critical condition Tuesday night at Delray Medical Center.
The alleged shooter, Marc Benayer, 79, was arrested quickly at the scene by a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who was posted at a synagogue across the street as part of beefed-up security for the start of the holiest period in the Jewish year.
Rosh Hashana initiates a 10-day period of celebration and personal reflection that culminates Oct. 13 in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Benayer, a resident of Century Village in West Boca, was facing charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery, deputies said.
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