Federal officials say a Michigan man threatened to commit a mass killing at a synagogue on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at two New Zealand mosques by a white supremacist gunman. A 19-year-old Michigan man has been charged with threatening a mass killing at a synagogue on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at two New Zealand mosques by a white supremacist gunman, federal officials say. Seann Patrick Pietila of Pickford, a township in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was arrested Friday and charged with transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors say he planned to target the Shaarey Zedek congregation in East Lansing. He allegedly made threats on social media, including Instagram, that included comments about neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism and glorifying mass shootings, most notably the 2019 shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, The Detroit News reported. Pietila was arrested the same day a truck driver was convicted of storming a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and fatally shooting 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror. The attack at the Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history and came after the attacker had ranted incessantly on social media about his hatred of Jewish people. (…) When FBI agents arrested Pietila at his home Friday, they found a cache of weapons, knives, tactical equipment, a red-and-white Nazi flag and makeshift plans for killing members of the Shaarey Zedek congregation on March 15, 2024, according to the complaint. The Michigan case focuses on numerous antisemitic social media posts allegedly made by Pietila. Prosecutors say he made apparent references to the New Zealand shooter, who is serving life in prison for killing 51 people and injured 40 others in the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.
via abcnews: Michigan man charged with threatening synagogue massacre
siehe auch: Man suspected of plotting attack on Michigan synagogue arrested. Suspect ‘evinced a neo-Nazi ideology, anti-Semitism, glorification of past mass shooters, and a desire and intent to mimic past mass shooters’ A neo-Nazi in Michigan was charged on Friday with plotting an anti-Semitic terrorist attack at a local synagogue, US officials said. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1669857896946085888 This post can’t be displayed because social networks cookies have been deactivated. You can activate them by clicking . US media reported that Seann Patrick Pietila, aged 19, admitted to posting anti-Semitic screeds on his Instagram profile, where he also sung the praise of fellow right-wing extremists, including the gunmen behind mass shootings in Norway in 2011 and New Zealand in 2019. He was charged with interstate communication of threats. Federal agents discovered the Nazi flag and multiple firearms in the suspect’s Upper Peninsula home. Investigators said his phone contained a note referring to the Shaarey Zedek Congregation synagogue in East Lansing, Michigan and the date March 15, 2024. The date will mark the fifth anniversary of a mass shooting in a Christchurch, New Zealand where a white supremacist murdered 51 Muslims. An equipment list in his phone included pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails.