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Shooting suspect Baumhammers arrested in Paris last year for punching woman he thought was Jewish
Friday, May 05, 2000 By Dennis B. Roddy and Johnna A. Pro, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Richard Baumhammers, who is accused of killing five people and wounding another in a string of racially motivated attacks, was arrested six months ago in Paris after punching a woman because he thought she was Jewish.
Parisian authorities said they had no other details about the arrest, but they were able to confirm a report yesterday in Agence France-Presse.
The French news agency quoted the woman, whom it described as a 50-year-old bar owner from the French province of Brittany, as saying that Baumhammers visited the bar on Oct. 20, drank two glasses of red wine, watched her closely, then left.
"He came back the next day and propped himself up on the counter. Suddenly he came up to me by the side of the cash-till, saying nothing, and gave me a big punch on the head," the woman said.
He was arrested by two plainclothes policemen who were in the cafe at the time. The woman told the news agency that Baumhammers "explained to the policemen that he was an anti-Semite and that he had hit me because he thought I was Jewish."
Police say Baumhammers' shooting rampage began when he shot and killed Anita Gordon, 63, a Jewish neighbor in his Mt. Lebanon neighborhood.
Yesterday, Baumhammers' parents, Andrejs and Inese Baumhammers, issued their first public comments to the families of the victims.
"This tragic episode could only be described as a nightmare," the couple said.
According to the Baumhammers' lawyers, William Difenderfer and Lee Rothman, Richard Baumhammers had been diagnosed with mental illness in 1993, although neither they nor the family has offered any specifics.
Richard Baumhammers told jail officials he was taking Trilafon, a drug used to treat psychosis.
In addition to Gordon, Baumhammers is accused of killing Anil Thakur, 31, of Bihar, India; Thao Q. "Tony" Pham, 27, of Castle Shannon; Ji-Ye "Jerry" Sun, 34, of Churchill; and Garry Lee, 22, of Aliquippa.
A sixth victim, Sandip Patel, 25, of Plum, was shot in the neck and is paralyzed. His condition has worsened and he remains in critical condition at Mercy Hospital.
Baumhammers also is accused of firing shots into two synagogues and defacing one of them with racist remarks in red spray paint.
The acts went against what his family believed in, the family's statement said.
"We are all God's children, and we condemn bigotry in any form. We count as our friends many who are diverse in ethnicity or race," his parents said.
The family statement also came on the day that another elected official said that Baumhammers sought him out for help. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Swissvale, said yesterday that Baumhammers showed up at the congressman's office in Mt. Lebanon in November 1998, complaining that the FBI was following him and his friends.
"He said he'd recently returned from Latvia," said David Lucas, Doyle's press secretary.
Lucas said Baumhammers turned up in January of last year, again complaining of FBI surveillance.
Doyle this week advised the FBI about the contact with Baumhammers. Lucas said Baumhammers never spoke with the congressman.
Word of the visit to Doyle's office followed reports that state Sen. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, told investigators Baumhammers had visited his Mt. Lebanon office within the last 12 months with complaints that he was being followed by federal agents.
Murphy said he referred the information to state Attorney General Mike Fisher and planned to forward additional information to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
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