On December 10, 2019, two people who had expressed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement were killed in a shootout with police after killing a police detective at Bayview Cemetery and three people at the JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey: the Jewish co-owner of the grocery store, an employee, and a Jewish shopper. Authorities treated the incident as an act of domestic terrorism. Capers Funnye, who has been the rabbi for the past 26 years of the 200-member Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, condemned the attack and said that his community was "gripped by sadness" over "the heinous actions of two disturbed individuals who cloaked themselves in anti-Semitism and hate-filled rhetoric". He also criticized the media reports by saying it was "unfortunate that the media uses the term 'Black Hebrew Israelites' without distinction as if the description is a one size fits all and it is absolutely not!" Funnye emphasized that "we don't want to be seen as some radical fringe group with a false narrative because we are black and profess Judaism; we are Torah-oriented Jews."