The suspect in an explosion at a Chabad House in Santa Monica was arrested April 11 while praying in a suburban Cleveland synagogue.
Ron Hirsch, 60, was charged by Los Angeles County with possessing a destructive device, using an explosive device and explosion with intent to murder. He faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted, the district attorney’s office said.
An FBI affidavit said a receipt for a large amount of chemicals links Hirsch to the crime, an April 7 blast. First ruled an industrial accident, investigators later decided the act — in which an explosion launched a 300-pound metal pipe encased in concrete through the roof of a home next to Chabad — was intentional. Authorities said a 12-year-old was sleeping underneath near where the device landed.
After the blast, Hirsch, known to frequent Jewish institutions seeking charity, bought a bus ticket to New York, the FBI said. He got off in Ohio and was arrested after a rabbi at a Cleveland Heights synagogue recognized him.
The FBI affidavit filed in federal court charged him with flight to avoid prosecution. Authorities have not released a motive for the blast, nor do Jewish groups believe anti-Semitism was necessarily a factor.
Hirsch, also known as Israel Fisher, appeared in federal court April 13 in Cleveland; he waived his rights and was remanded to the custody of U.S. Marshals for extradition to California. He reportedly told his lawyer that he is innocent. — ap & jta