‘It was like a war’: survivors describe horror of attack at Jewish supermarket

Yossi Steinmetz was still in shock when he returned to the scene 24 hours after narrowly escaping with his life during Tuesday’s attack that killed six people in Jersey City.

Just seconds before the shooting started, the 30-year-old had been inside JC Kosher Supermarket – the grocery store where five people, including the attackers, were killed – before going to the synagogue to worship next door.

When gunfire broke out, he was standing beside the grocery store owner who was desperately trying to reach his wife, who was still in the shop.

Mindel Ferencz, 31, who ran the grocery with her husband, has since been named as one of the victims who were killed, along with Moshe Deutsch, a 24-year-old customer, and Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, 49, who worked at the store. Police believe before going to the store, in Greenville, the shooters killed the Jersey City police detective Joseph Seals at a nearby cemetery.

Related: Jersey City shooting: six dead as officials say suspects targeted Jewish grocery

On Tuesday afternoon, a man and a woman, named as David N Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, pulled up at the store in a stolen rental van carrying at least one rifle and opened fire. Witness described a prolonged gun battle between the attackers and police that lasted several hours.

Law enforcement officials said they are still investigating the attackers’ motives, but the Jersey City mayor, Steven Fulop; the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio; and Jewish leaders have labelled it a hate crime.

Authorities also reportedly found anti-Jewish and anti-police posts by one of the suspects on social media. They were also suspects in a killing of a driver found in nearby Bayonne on Saturday. Anderson previously served time in prison on weapons charges.

While they were in the synagogue, Steinmetz said the shop owner repeatedly tried to call his wife to check that she was OK, but became increasingly nervous when she did not pick up.

Steinmetz, who lives in Brooklyn but regularly visits the area and has been going to the synagogue for two years, tried to get inside the store to check on her, but after he saw a body lying on the floor he realised it was not safe.

“I actually crawled over the gates at the back. I saw the worker laying facedown – that’s where I figured how severe it is. That’s how I got to my head that this is no, it’s not a joke. We ran back and then we barricaded ourselves [inside the synagogue]. Until then we didn’t know how crazy, how wild it is.”

For over four hours he and dozens of others – including dozens of young children – were trapped inside the synagogue.

“During, nobody knew nothing but from the amount of bullets, from the amount of ammo was going on in there I figured right away that it’s … nobody’s coming out alive of that place. It was beyond. I mean [there are] no words to explain how it is.”

He said the impact on the community would be “very severe”. He added: “It’s heartbreaking. I don’t know what we will be doing, but for sure something has to happen, this must stop … It’s scary. It’s frightening.”

“At the moment I’m still in shock.”

Moshe Schapiro, a local Chabad rabbi, went straight to the hospital when he heard about the attack, where he saw a man who was injured and whose cousin had been killed.

“I know this grocery, I know this community, I’ve been here many times,” he said.

In response to reports that the store was specifically targeted, he said: “It’s very sad. It’s very shocking. It’s scary. We generally feel safe here in the United States, we have no problems, but it’s very scary and sad, as we speak. But we’re not going anywhere.”

Nelson Rodriguez, 61, has owned a shop for 22 years that sits just a few metres away from the grocery store.

After the shooting started, he said about 10 to 12 people ran into his store to take refuge from the gunfire at around 12.30pm.

From his shop windows, Rodriguez watched as police with huge guns stood outside door and a tank-like vehicle went down the street to force open the front of the shop that was under attack.

“When I heard the noise of the bullets, I went outside and see the police and all the people shooting each other .… It was like a war. It was terrible.”

Immediately opposite the store, on Martin Luther King Drive, inside Sacred Heart School, children were led to the basement for shelter.

Tytianna Boyette, 44, a school bus driver, waited for her twin 13-year-old sons, who are pupils at the school, for hours while listening to the gunshots and watching smoke fill the air.

“[I felt] just helpless. Just numb. You’re just numb because at the end of the day you don’t know if your children are OK or not,” she said on Wednesday, holding her children’s backpacks, which she had come to collect.

Yoel Klein, 28, a construction worker from New York, usually goes to the store that was attacked to get his lunch, but by chance he did not go on Tuesday.

He said he felt “complete shock and horror”. He added: “I mean, disbelief. I cannot really believe. It’s the place I take my sandwiches, my coffee from everyday.”

Klein described the owners as “fine and beautiful people. I mean, it’s always a pleasure to be there.”

He added: “I think we have to be a lot more cautious, have a lot more security. We’re taking a lot of things for granted. We live in a great country but we definitely have to step up our security and fight the antisemitism and any other hate that’s spreading around.”

Rabbi David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organisations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, knew the victims personally. He believes the attack was clearly a hate crime and that communities around the country must work to “root out” hate.

“This is not a local issue. It’s not Jersey City, who’s working so hard,” he said. “But this needs the required attention – state, city and federal government – to try and stop this.”