Seth James Larhode, 21, Isaiah James Freeman, 18, Aden Sides, 18, and Noah Loepp-Hall, 19, were arrested by Denver police Thursday morning on suspicion of murder, burglary, aggravated robbery, aggravated motor vehicle theft, menacing, and assault. The murder, of Shmuel Silverberg, a Jewish student of Yeshiva Toras Chaim, concluded a violent crime spree Tuesday night—but Police see no evidence showing his shooting was an anti-Semitic hate crime. They say the suspects did not mention the fact that their victim was Jewish.
Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said on Thursday that “the murder of the student, Shmuel Silverberg, shocked the Jewish community, not just here in Denver and Colorado, but throughout the United States.”
During the memorial service, Rabbi Tzvi Steinberg of Congregation Zera Abraham cried, “Shmuely, Shmuely, where are you? What are we going to do without Shmuely? We need you… You can’t go away…”
Silverberg was shot outside the yeshiva, in a quiet residential neighborhood of Denver. Police believe he ran away from his attackers, who chased him into the school grounds after shooting him. Other yeshiva students performed CPR on the victim while waiting for the ambulance that rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to the DPD commander of the Felony Division Matt Clark, the suspects mugged and shot another man earlier on Tuesday, stole a car, and robbed a business. The DPD believes there’s a fifth suspect who remains at large. He is 19-year-old Samuel Fussell, seen in the picture below:
“At this time, no one has mentioned the victim’s religion or offered information indicating that they were targeting the school or the Jewish community,” Clark told reporters, adding, “While I can’t understand it, the best explanation we have at the moment is that this group of criminals went out and assaulted, robbed, robbed, shot and finally killed a random individual that night.”
Shmuel Silverberg grew up in University Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, and his grandparents live in Lakewood. His funeral took place in Lakewood.
