Police in Ventura County, Los Angeles, are investigating a Muslim man on suspicion of fatally beating Paul Kessler, an elderly pro-Israel protester, during clashes between protesters in the city's West Lake neighborhood.
While police said yesterday that the nature of the incident was still unclear, the New York Post published an investigation according to which police are investigating a Muslim citizen named Lawi al-Naji on suspicion that he was the man who hit with a megaphone and knocked Kessler down, an assault that resulted in his death from a brain hemorrhage.
The scene of the murder of Jewish demonstrator Paul Kessler
Al-Naji, a professor of computer science at Moorpark College, has previously disseminated pro-Hamas propaganda on social media. The college took down al-Naji's lecturer page after the incident, but the man refused to make any statement to the media.
Police confirmed to the newspaper that a suspect in the attack had indeed been questioned and that he lived in Morpark, but al-Naji's name was not explicitly disclosed. The man was not arrested but was questioned by police at the scene. In one video, a female police officer is heard asking al-Naji, "So you tried to hit the phone?"
The last photo of Paul Kessler before he was beaten to death,
The local sheriff, Jim Freehoff, said that while dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were holding a demonstration in the area, there were a number of pro-Israel supporters standing in the same area with Israeli flags. While the incident that led to Kessler's beating is still being investigated, police admitted that the deceased was conscious while receiving medical treatment and answered investigators' questions on his way to the hospital.
"As the sheriff of the local community, I stand here with a painful heart in light of the tragic event that our community is going through. Our thoughts and prayers are with Kessler's family," Freehome began. "The suspect in Kessler's beating was identified and arrested by the local police, his home was searched and he was later released," he added.
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