NEW YORK (AP) — Social media posts about attacking a synagogue represented an actual hazard to the town’s Jewish neighborhood, Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Monday.
“This was not an idle menace,” Adams mentioned at a information convention the place he was joined by officers from the FBI, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and different businesses concerned within the arrests early Saturday of Christopher Brown and Matthew Mahrer on costs together with felony possession of a weapon. The boys have been arrested at New York’s Penn Station after authorities noticed the posts.
“This was an actual menace,” he mentioned.
Based on the felony grievance in opposition to him, Brown made a sequence of threats on Twitter together with, on Thursday, “Gonna ask a Priest if I ought to turn out to be a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die,” after which on Friday, “This time I’m actually gonna do it.”
Authorities linked the tweets to Brown, of Aquebogue, on Lengthy Island, and recognized Mahrer, of Manhattan, as an affiliate, mentioned Michael Driscoll, head of the FBI’s New York workplace.
An outline of Brown, 21, and Mahrer, 22, went out to regulation enforcers, and two MTA law enforcement officials noticed the 2 at Penn Station late Friday and arrested them, police mentioned.
Brown had a big military-style knife, a ski masks and a swastika arm patch when he was arrested, authorities mentioned.
A bag containing a Glock-style pistol with a large-capacity journal and 17 bullets was seized from Mahrer’s house constructing, in line with the grievance. Surveillance video from shortly earlier than their arrests confirmed Brown and Mahrer strolling into the constructing, with Mahrer carrying the bag, in line with the felony grievance.
Brown, who was charged with making a terrorist menace along with the weapons costs, informed police that he runs a white supremacist Twitter group and Mahrer is considered one of his followers, in line with the grievance.
“I’ve Nazi paraphernalia at my home. I believe it’s actually cool,” Brown informed police, the grievance mentioned.
Brown mentioned he and Mahrer met at St. Patrick’s Cathedral earlier than shopping for a gun as a result of he “wished to get the blessing,” in line with the grievance.
Each males have been arraigned in Manhattan felony courtroom over the weekend and are due again in courtroom on Wednesday. Federal costs in opposition to them could possibly be filed at a later time, Driscoll mentioned.
Telephone messages in search of remark have been left with attorneys for Brown and Mahrer.
Adams, a Democrat and a former police officer, mentioned threats in opposition to Jewish individuals or some other group have to be taken significantly after assaults just like the Buffalo supermarket shooting and Saturday’s shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
“America should defeat the rising menace of home terrorism,” Adams mentioned. “It’s actual, it’s right here and we should have a formidable method to it.”
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