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Solved case · 1999
The short answer
On August 10, 1999, white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. opened fire inside the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Los Angeles, wounding five people, then shot and killed Filipino American postal worker Joseph Santos Ileto before fleeing and later surrendering to the FBI.
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On the morning of August 10, 1999, at around 10:50 a.m. local time, Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr. entered the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in the Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, and opened fire with an Uzi-type submachine gun, firing more than 70 rounds. Approximately 250 children were playing outside the center at the time. Five people were wounded: a five-year-old boy, two six-year-old boys, a 16-year-old teenage camp counselor, and a 68-year-old receptionist. All five victims eventually recovered, though the five-year-old, Benjamin Kadish, was critically injured, losing roughly half his blood volume and requiring six hours of surgery before being released from the hospital on September 23, 1999.
Furrow fled the scene in a van, carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint about twenty minutes later, and abandoned it at a motel in Chatsworth. A few miles from the community center, he approached USPS letter carrier Joseph Santos Ileto, asked him to mail a letter, and then shot him nine times with a Glock 9mm handgun, killing him. Furrow later stated he targeted Ileto because he believed him to be Latino or Asian and because Ileto worked for the federal government; Ileto was Filipino American.
Investigators determined Furrow had prepared for the attack in advance, purchasing a van in Washington State loaded with weapons, ammunition, and body armor, and had considered but ultimately avoided three other Jewish institutions in Los Angeles due to the presence of armed security. Materials recovered from his abandoned van included antisemitic and white-supremacist literature. Furrow had prior ties to Richard Girnt Butler's white-supremacist movement and had worked security at Butler's Idaho compound. After the shooting, he traveled by taxi to Las Vegas, Nevada, and turned himself in to an FBI office, confessing to the attacks.
Furrow was charged with federal murder in Ileto's death, along with civil rights violations and weapons charges, and separately faced state attempted-murder charges for the community center shootings. On January 24, 2001, he pleaded guilty to all 16 felony counts against him, avoiding a possible death sentence. On March 26, 2001, U.S. District Court Judge Nora Manella sentenced Furrow to two consecutive life terms plus 110 additional years without the possibility of parole, and ordered him to pay over $690,000 in restitution. He remains incarcerated in a federal prison in Minnesota.
The attack contributed to the formation of the Million Mom March, a gun-control advocacy movement that held demonstrations across the United States on Mother's Day in 2000. Ileto was later honored with a post office named for him in Chino Hills, California.
7 dated entries · 1999–2001
Furrow purchases a van in Tacoma, Washington, and loads it with weapons, ammunition, and body armor.
Furrow opens fire inside the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Los Angeles, wounding five people.
Furrow shoots and kills USPS mail carrier Joseph Santos Ileto in Chatsworth, then flees the state.
Furrow surrenders to the FBI in Las Vegas, Nevada, confessing to the shootings.
Benjamin Kadish, the most seriously injured victim, is released from the hospital.
Furrow pleads guilty to all 16 felony counts against him.
Furrow is sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 110 years without parole and ordered to pay restitution.
8 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Five-year-old boy critically wounded in the abdomen and leg during the shooting; recovered after surgery.[3]
Sixty-eight-year-old receptionist grazed on the arm and back during the shooting; recovered.[3]
Six-year-old boy wounded in the heel during the shooting; recovered.[3]
USPS mail carrier shot and killed by Furrow in Chatsworth after the community center shooting.[3]
Six-year-old boy wounded in the leg and hip during the shooting; recovered.[3]
Sixteen-year-old teenage camp counselor wounded in the thigh and shin during the shooting; recovered.[3]
Pleaded guilty on January 24, 2001, to 16 felony counts including the murder of Joseph Ileto, civil rights violations, and weapons charges; sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 110 years without parole.[3]
U.S. District Court Judge who presided over and delivered the sentencing of Furrow.[3]
From the record
3 cited
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
PressCNNAccessed Jul 10, 2026
PressLos Angeles TimesAccessed Jul 10, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 10, 2026
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