Rabbi Abba Bryski charged with murder after Costco incident in California

A prominent rabbi is behind bars on a multi-million dollar bond and charged with murder after a young man was mowed down and killed this week.

Abba Avrohom Bryski, a 35-year-old educator from Agoura Hills, is facing felony murder charges over the death of 28-year-old Nicholas Lang outside a Costco warehouse in Camarillo, north-west of Los Angeles.

Emergency services were called to the West Ventura Boulevard gas station just after 8.30pm on October 20 following reports a pedestrian had been hit by a vehicle near the gas pumps.

Lang, who lived in Modesto, was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses at the scene pointed responding sheriff’s deputies toward Bryski, who was allegedly found sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle parked nearby.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office has since charged Bryski with felony murder carrying a deadly-weapon enhancement, alongside a misdemeanor charge of resisting, obstructing or delaying police or emergency personnel.

He remains in custody on $3 million bail ahead of an initial appearance in the Ventura Superior Court on October 26.

Detectives from the sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau have not disclosed the circumstances immediately preceding the fatal impact, and authorities are yet to verify the victim’s employment status or reason for being on the site.

Jail records list Bryski as a rabbi and educator. He is the son of Rabbi Moshe Bryski, the head of the Chabad of the Conejo centre, however, the broader Chabad-Lubavitch organisation has disputed that the younger Bryski held any official standing within the movement.

The fatal crash occurred at the site of a brand-new retail warehouse scheduled to open on October 30, where the attached gas station had been trading since May.

Investigators have urged anyone with information to contact Ventura County Major Crimes detectives.

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