1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW
On a lazy August morning in Granada Hills, a gunman sauntered into the North Valley Jewish Community Center with a 9-millimeter assault rifle and started shooting.
He transformed the children’s summer camp into a scene of horror, injuring a receptionist, a teenage camp counselor and three boys. This heartbreaking image of gun-wielding police leading a chain of children out of the camp attracted worldwide attention and reignited calls for gun control.
An hour later, a postal worker was gunned down in Chatsworth. At first, it was not known whether his fatal shooting was connected to the earlier attack.
The next day, Buford O. Furrow, a neo-Nazi from Washington state, turned himself in to police. Authorities said he confessed to both attacks, calling the Granada Hills shootings a “wake-up call” to kill American Jews. He said he had shot postal worker Joseph Ileto, authorities reported, because he was a nonwhite and wore a government uniform.
The U.S. attorney’s office is considering whether to seek the death penalty for Furrow in connection with Ileto’s killing. After that federal trial, Furrow is to face state charges of murder, attempted murder and carjacking.
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