In the evening of 5 November 1990, Kahane gave a speech in the second-floor lecture hall of a Marriott Hotel, in Manhattan, at 525 Lexington Avenue, to an audience, most of whom were Orthodox Jews. After his speech, a crowd of well-wishers gathered around Kahane as he answered questions. Shortly after 9:00 p.m., a man disguised as an Orthodox Jew approached Kahane and shot him from close range with a.357 caliber pistol. Kahane was hit in the neck by the gunfire and died of his wounds shortly thereafter. After shooting Kahane, the assassin fled from the hotel and reached Lexington Avenue, where, in front of a post office, he attempted to take over a taxi at gunpoint. Carlos Acosta, an on-duty postal police officer, drew his pistol and ordered the assassin to freeze. Instead, the assassin turned toward the officer and shot and hit him in the chest. The officer returned fire, hitting the assassin in the chin. Afterwards, the officer arrested the man. Born in Egypt, he was the American citizenEl Sayyid Nosair, who had been living in Jersey City.
Prosecution of Nosair
Nosair was charged with the murder of Kahane. During the legal proceedings, Nosair denied all charges against him. Although there were witnesses who identified Nosair as the assassin, Nosair was not convicted of Kahane's assassination, in part because Kahane's family had opposed the performing of an autopsy after the assassination and the extracting of the bullets. However, Nosair was convicted of assault, possession of an illegal firearm, and of shooting a US Postal Inspection Service agent. Nosair was sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment, the maximum allowed.
Conspiracy to free Nosair from prison
Nosair was to serve his sentence in the Attica State Prison, in New York. In 1993, Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman was arrested in New York. An investigation later revealed that a terrorist cell, led by Abdul-Rahman, conducted detailed surveillance of the Attica State Prison facilities and that it had discussed plans to use a truck bomb attack, combined with an armed assault, to rescue Nosair from prison.
Nosair's conviction of activity in a terrorist cell
The investigation of Abdul-Rahman showed that Nosair belonged to the terrorist cell. It was led by Abdul-Rahman who later tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993 by using an explosive-laden vehicle. This time, Nosair was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, plus 15 years. It was decided that because Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," Nosair could be convicted of killing Kahane. He is serving his sentence in the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois.
Nosair's confession of Kahane's assassination
Several years after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Nosair made a confession to federal agents of assassinating Kahane.
Possible accomplices
In August 2010, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post, which, in turn, quoted from the mid August issue of Playboy, claimed that Nosair had two partners and that his original target was Israeli military figure and future Israeli Prime MinisterAriel Sharon. "He added that on the night he shot Kahane dead, he was accompanied by two co-conspirators to the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan where Kahane was speaking – one of whom was also carrying a gun. The men, Bilal al-Kaisi of Jordan and Mohammed A. Salameh, a Palestinian illegal alien later involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, have never been charged for their part in the slaying."
