Jewish Museum Shooting Kills Three, Officials Aren’t Sure If It’s An Anti-Semitic Attack Against Jews

The Jewish Museum shooting in Brussels, Belgium left three people dead and four injured. Although the shooter targeted people in the Jewish Museum, police are not yet ready to say the shooting was a purposefully anti-Semitic attack against Jews.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, the Santa Barbara shooting suspect left multiple YouTube videos explaining his motive for mass murder.

Reports say the Jewish Museum shooting was carried out by an unidentified lone gunman who came into the museum with one or two backpacks. After carrying out his attacks, he escaped to a vehicle which he had left double-parked in front. But fortunately, he was not able to escape too quickly since witnesses were about to write down his license plate number, which is RTBF.

Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur went on on live TV to explain that police were “trying to determine if they were visitors or members of the Jewish Museum staff.” Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders says he happened to be near the Jewish Museum shooting when it took place and when he arrived there was a man and woman lying in a pool of blood just outside the entrance. Other victims were inside the lobby.

Reynders also was not certain whether or not the shooting was an anti-Semitic attack:

“When I saw them I realized that there was nothing to be done. There were a good number of details for identifying the vehicle. And I hope that the investigation can proceed quickly. Clearly when there are murders inside a Jewish museum, you ask yourself if it was an antisemitic attack. But wait until we have caught the culprit or culprits and we can be sure.”

Interior Minister Joelle Milquet concurred with this assessment:

“We can’t say for sure that it was an antisemitic attack. But there’s a strong presumption, since it’s a case of a shooting, which could have been at random though that remains to be confirmed, and obviously it’s taken place in the Jewish Museum.”

Viviane Teitelbaum, a member of the Brussels legislature, says there’s been a recent rise of anti-Jewish sentiment. Around 20,000 Jews live in Brussels, which is about half the Jewish population in the country. She said the city has “been a very difficult place to live” even before the Jewish Museum shooting took place.

[Image via Wikipedia]