When Jewish pro-Israel protester Paul Kessler died during a skirmish last month in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks, California, college professor and pro-Hamas protester Loay Alnaji insisted he had nothing to do with the 69-year-old’s death.
Sure, he said, reports may have indicated that he hit Kessler with his bullhorn and surveillance video showed the pro-Hamas protesters rushing over toward him before the 69-year-old Kessler fell to his death, according to National Review. But Alnaji, a Moorpark College professor, insisted that Kessler was the aggressor and that he fell of his own volition — possibly due to a medical condition.
After a Wednesday court appearance, that alibi isn’t looking so hot.
According to The Associated Press, a Ventura County, California judge ruled that Alnaji, 51, would face trial on involuntary manslaughter and battery charges. While the preliminary hearing requires a lower burden of proof for a judge to move forward with the charges than is needed to convict and Alnaji is indeed innocent until proven guilty, the evidence in court was pretty damning.
While the computer science professor’s lawyer, Ron Bamieh, said that a brain tumor played a role in Kessler falling over and hitting his skull on the pavement, delivering the fatal injury, medical evidence shows that the bullhorn had Kessler’s DNA on it and that some of the injuries sustained by Kessler were consistent with those that would be caused by a bullhorn strike.
Ventura County’s assistant chief medical examiner, Dr. Othon Mena, said that Kessler had lacerations on his left chin, left upper lip and left eye, all caused by the implement.
“Meanwhile, Kessler’s DNA was found on three sections of the bullhorn, according to a crime lab technician’s testimony, including a bloodstain that was found near the bottom of the bullhorn,” National Review reported.
Alnaji’s DNA was not found on the bullhorn, but video from Kessler’s phone showed the defendant holding what prosecutors say was the weapon just before the attack took place.
Mena could not determine whether the skull fracture or a tear on the back of his head were caused due to the assault with the bullhorn or the fall, he testified in court.
Will Alnaji be convicted?
Kessler died several hours after the attack.
Loay Alnaji’s Homicide of Paul Kessler Prelim is 5/14. Will VC DA add Hate Crime/ coconspirator charges to him and his Islamic Society of Simi Valley leaders? Their Imam recognized them from prev week, their President leads Alnaji to Kessler, he targets him with the Megaphone. pic.twitter.com/Y60dmZs7U8
— VCNews (@NewsVCNews) May 13, 2024
The Nov. 5, 2023 protest was one of many that happened from coast to coast in the weeks and months following the Oct. 7 terror attacks from Hamas on Israelis.
The difference with Alnaji’s case is that this is the one time that death has visited a pro-Israel voice in the United States in the name of pro-Hamas “resistance.” (This isn’t at all uncommon in Israel, of course, but these facts tend to get swept under the carpet.)
And, as it is in Israel, the blame is always foisted upon the victim.
Take, for example, the testimony of Deputy Sheriff Briana Vazquez during the hearing. According to the Ventura County Star, she’s one of the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene.
When she interviewed Alnaji, he said that Kessler had approached him and that he had put the bullhorn up in self-defense after Kessler began recording him and putting his phone in his face.
However, other officers who interviewed two other witnesses — one a pro-Israeli protester, the other a bystander who was at a stoplight — told a markedly different story: They say Alnaji took a “swing” at Kessler before the fall.
Alnaji’s response, through his lawyer?
“I believe most of these witnesses are confused,” Bamie said. “They all saw it differently.”
Ah, yes. They were confused. Just as everyone was confused about the intent of the pro-Hamas crowd when video caught them chanting, as the dying Kessler was led away in an ambulance, “Hitler didn’t want you, Hitler didn’t want you, Hitler didn’t want you, Hitler should’ve smashed you!”
Total confusion, all of us. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
