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Miami-Dade police officers release synagogue shooting surveillance video

Shooter arrested in August; 68-year-old victim endured 17 hours of surgery

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – In July, Carlints St. Louis, 30, pulled up in a black Chevrolet Impala and fired his 9 mm semi-automatic pistol at a North Miami Beach synagogue multiple times, officers said.

According to reports, bullets struck the hurricane shutters, holes were found in temple walls and one bullet struck Yosef Lipshutz, 68, in the leg as he was preparing to unlock the temple doors ahead of Mincha — or, afternoon prayer — at Young Israel of Greater Miami.

Surveillance video released by the temple shows St. Louis pull up in the Impala. St. Louis' gun can be seen poking through palm trees. As St. Louis allegedly fires, Lipshutz can be seen attempting to run from the scene and collapsing after apparently being struck.

Several people from and around the temple, including a Hatzolah volunteer, rushed to help Lipshutz. Hatzolah is a nonprofit emergency medical service organization that services Jewish communities around the world.

Lipshutz was later taken by paramedics to the hospital, where he recovered from his wounds. Lipshutz endured more than 17 hours of surgery, reports from Yeshiva World News, on online publication, said.

The case received worldwide attention and officers were able to use license plate technology and cellphone geolocation data to name St. Louis as a possible suspect.

The day before his arrest, St. Louis stopped at the Hallandale Beach Police Department to report that his gun had been stolen from his vehicle. 

St. Louis was arrested the next day and a search of his Toyota Corolla revealed a 9 mm magazine whose Hornady brand bullets matched the casings found at the scene of the shooting, investigators said.

"We are so thankful to them for their persistence and their wisdom in apprehending this killer," Rabbi David Lehrfield, of Young Israel of Greater Miami,  said. "And, I call him a killer because he wanted to kill this man."

St. Louis is being held in Miami-Dade jail without bail and faces an attempted murder charge.


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