December 11, 2019 10:11 pm
JERSEY CITY (VINnews) — The suspects who were behind the Jersey City shooting that left 4 innocent people dead, including 2 Orthodox Jews and a police officer, were a religiously fanatical couple, who lived together inside a van, according to records and neighbors.
The killer couple, David N. Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, — who died in a gun battle with cops — met about two years ago when Graham was living a quiet life as a home health aide in an Elizabeth, N.J., apartment complex, according to The Post.
A former neihgbor of Graham — a 45-year-old woman who did not want her name given — said that after meeting Anderson, Graham changed.
“Since he got into her life she didn’t have a desire to work. She used to exercise with me, we used to walk around the block. Then all of the sudden she seemed to disappear. I stopped seeing her around. She stopped taking my calls,” she said.
Graham also told the woman she was part of a religion pertaining to “black jews” — likely the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, of which Anderson has been identified as a one-time follower by law enforcement sources.
Another neighbor said that Anderson and Graham were often heard loudly quoting from the New Testament inside their home.
“She used to do chanting and stuff like that. It was loud enough to know it was that. She would just be standing right there,” said the neighbor. “Standing and smoking. You would just hear them just chanting religious stuff.”
Before Anderson met Graham, he reportedly served in the Army Reserves as a fuel and electrical system repairer from Sept. 1999 to Sept. 2003.
Records shpw that Graham was arrested shortly before completing his time in the reserves for possessing an illegal weapon. He spent the next 8 years in and out of prison.
Approximately 3 years after his illegal weapons arrest, Graham was found guilty again of the same charge. He was sentenced to probation again in December 2008 after spending 445 days in jail.
After completing his probation, Graham spent a short time in New York, but in 2009 he moved to Kent, Ohio to stay with a woman he met online.
On Sept. 20 that year, the two got into a fight about having children together, during which Anderson punched a hole in the wall and threatened to kill her.
“I’m gonna kill you. I feel like killing you. You made me lose everything, you can leave this world. Call the police because I’m gonna kill you,” Anderson allegedly told the woman as he forcefully grabbed her cheeks on her face, the police records state.
He was arrested for domestic violence, but ultimately spent just 30 days in prison after he managed to downplay the charge to criminal mischief.
The couple got back together following Graham’s release from prison, but Graham was arrested once again approximately 2 and a half years later when police realized he had an open warrant from Hudson County for his 2007 weapons violation during another incident involving Anderson’s girlfriend and her children.
He was extradited to New Jersey where he was sentenced to a 5 year prison term for violating his probation, but was released 4 years later on parole.
Anderson and Graham are accused of walking into the Jersey City Kosher Supermarket Tuesday afternoon and shooting three individuals after they killed a Jersey City detective in the nearby Bayview Cemetery.
The attack is being called a hate crime by Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop but Jersey City police have not yet confirmed whther or not the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
The duo are also considered the prime suspects behind the murder of Michael Rumberger, a Bayonne livery driver.