A man was escorted from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre after shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump,” during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” — a musical that focuses on the early 20th century Jewish community in Russia.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the man Wednesday yelled from his balcony seat during the intermission and issued a Nazi salute, which prompted audience members to scatter.
“I’ll be honest, I was waiting to hear a gunshot,” audience member Rich Scherr said, per the Sun. “I thought, ‘Here we go.’”
Although the man was removed from the theater and the performance continued, Scherr said it was difficult to concentrate on the stage action.
“My heart was just racing. I didn’t even really pay attention to the second act,” Scherr said.
Late last month, a mass shooting occurred at a Pittsburgh synagogue, taking the lives of 11 individuals. Six others were wounded.
The suspect involved in the shooting carried an AR-15 rifle along with several handguns, and said while being taken into custody he wanted to “kill Jews.”
According to information unveiled by the FBI earlier this week, 58 percent of all religiously-motivated hate crimes targeted Jews — a 37 percent increase from 2016.
