Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

The Struthers Police Department arrested a 15-year-old last month after he threatened to kill his father and revealed plans to target a synagogue and Black people.

The police were alerted by the FBI June 17 that the teen was livestreaming when he made the threat against his father, who was asleep in the adjacent room. He was arrested at his home where two handguns and over 100 rounds of ammunition were collected as evidence.

A search warrant of the teens telephone revealed a video stating his plans, according to police reports.

He was going to kill his father and take his fathers van, and his game plan was to kill as many Black people as he can on his way to a Jewish synagogue and then shoot people at the synagogue, Struthers Detective Tommy Schneeman told the Cleveland Jewish News July 8.

The teen has been charged with making terroristic threat, domestic violence, inducing panic and threatening violence, and possessing criminal tools.

In a statement to the CJN, Andrew Lipkin, CEO of Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, said:

We are aware of the arrest of a Struthers, Ohio teen on charges of making terroristic threats, domestic violence, inducing panic, and possessing criminal tools, and that some of the threats were antisemitic in nature.

We do not believe there is a threat to the local Jewish community at this time. As always, our security team is working with local law enforcement to ensure the safety of all members of the local Jewish community, and all who work with and visit the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation and its agencies. We are grateful for our partnerships with local law enforcement, and will work with them to ensure the security of our entire Federation campus and to support their efforts to bring those responsible for antisemitic crimes to justice.

Racist and antisemitic messages and symbols and Nazi propaganda were discovered on the firearms, the teens phone and a journal turned in to the police by the teens father, the reports said.

The teen told the police he was distraught over losing his mother and the strained relationship with his father. He also stated he was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi sympathizer and despised all those associated with the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQ community, reports said.

Following his arrest, the teen was transported to Mercy Health Hospital in downtown Youngstown and later Windsor-Laurelwood Behavioral Health Center in Willoughby for a mental evaluation.

He was released from the health center July 1 and transported to the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center.

Struthers is a suburb of Youngstown and about 80 miles from Cleveland.

This is a developing story.

Excerpt from:

Youngstown-area teen arrested; planned to target synagogue - Cleveland Jewish News

Category: Synagogue
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