A Michigan teenager pleaded guilty Monday to plotting a mass shooting against Jews after he was arrested making violent anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi threats on Instagram, federal prosecutors said.
Seann Pietila, 19, agreed to discuss plans to kill or injure Jews at an East Lansing synagogue while exchanging Instagram messages with another user in June, according to prosecutors.
In his plea agreement, Pietila also admitted that he had discussed wanting to broadcast the attack online.
One of the messages showed Pietila saying he hoped to “inspire others to take up arms against the Jewish-controlled state,” prosecutors said.
The FBI said Pietila had also shown admiration, at one point, for Brenton Tarrant, the New Zealand mass shooter serving a life sentence for killing 51 people and wounding dozens more in the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre.
After being alerted to the disturbing messages last summer, federal agents raided his Pickford home, where they found a cache of weapons, tactical equipment, a Nazi flag, a camouflage ghillie suit, gas masks and a military sniper manual.
Seann Pietila, 19, agreed to discuss plans to kill or injure Jews at an East Lansing synagogue last summer. The FBI’s Pietila had written a note on his phone with the congregation’s name Shaarey Zedek, as well as a date of 2024 and a list of weapons, the feds said. FBI
A subsequent search of his phone also uncovered a note where he had written the name of the Shaarey Zedek congregation near Michigan State University, along with a date of 2024 and a list of weapons, the feds said.
“Thank God we were in a situation where we prevented a potential atrocity rather than being in a position to respond to one,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said outside federal court in Grand Rapids Monday following the guilty plea.
“This is a tense time because of the situation that is happening abroad,” Totten added of the current war between Israel and Hamas.
In his plea agreement with prosecutors, Pietila also admitted that he had discussed wanting to broadcast the attack online. FBI A subsequent search of her phone also discovered a note where she had written the name of the Shaarey Zedek congregation near Michigan State University. Google Maps
“We will show zero tolerance for hate-fueled acts of violence and threats of violence against anyone based on their race, ethnicity or religion.”
Pietila, who has been in custody since his arrest in June, pleaded guilty to transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce.
He will be sentenced on March 4 and faces up to five years in prison.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn