Bomb found in van of Jersey City shooters

Ehrie said that when law enforcement searched the U-Haul van, they found an improvised explosive device inside.

“It was a viable device, meaning it could be a device that would have exploded,” Ehrie said. “It was, again, of a pipe bomb design. Not complicated, but sophisticated in a sense that time and effort went into creating it.”

During the press conference, the names of the shooters were released to the public. They were identified as David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, though they didn’t speak to the relationship between the two and whether others were involved.

Anderson had been a follower of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a group whose members believe they are God’s chosen people and descendants of the ancient Israelites.

The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that “there is a rising extremist sector within the Hebrew Israelite movement whose adherents believe that Jews are devilish impostors and who openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery.”

Graham was a former home health aide who was pushed into a militant religion, her neighbor told NBC News. The neighbor said that she could be heard chanting from the New Testament and said that when Graham met Anderson, she turned into a “dark person.”

Criminal records show that Anderson served time in jail and faced weapons charges in 2004, 2007, and 2011. Anderson had also posted about his anti-Semitic and anti-police views online.

Tuesday’s violence started when the suspects fatally shot Jersey City Police Department Detective Joseph Seals, 40, in the head. Surveillance video showed that after killing Seals, the two drove to the kosher deli.

“The perpetrators stopped in front of there and calmly opened the door with two long rifles,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said.

Anderson and Graham got out of the van by the market and began firing their guns, killing three more people. The shooting was described as a “targeted” attack.

There was a firefight between the two and police that lasted for more than an hour and included hundreds of gunshots.

In addition to the pipe bomb, guns were found in the van along with a manifesto-like note that contained religious writing.