[IsraelTimes] Domagoj Patkovic, 31, arrested Tuesday, made multiple hoax calls to Jewish institutions and 911 operators that were broadcast live on Discord
Just hateful lads being hateful, was he being paid, or was there more to it? An Oregon man has been charged with making multiple antisemitic threats involving explosives against Jewish health care centers in the New York City and Long Island areas in 2021, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI’s New York field office announced Tuesday.
Domagoj Patkovic, 31, was arrested at his home in Portland Tuesday morning.
He and his co-conspirators were "motivated by their hatred of Jewish people, targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York City and on Long Island with hoax bomb threats, needlessly endangering patients and staff by creating chaos and alarm," US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
The threats predated a recent spree of bomb threats against Jewish institutions, mainly synagogues, that began in the summer of 2023. There have been multiple arrests in connection with those threats, as well.
In at least six phone calls in May and September 2021, Patkovic threatened hospitals and local law enforcement responding to a 911 call from one of those hospitals and live streamed the calls on Discord, a social media and messaging platform.
No bombs or bombs were found at any of the locations, but in several instances, local police conducted bomb sweeps. In at least one instance, the fake bomb threat resulted in a partial evacuation and lockdown of an entire Long Island Jewish hospital.
During the phone call to a phone operator at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, Patkovic, identifying himself as "Abrahimavich," claimed there was C-4, an kaboom, in the maintenance closets and threatened, "I’m gonna blow you to bits you f—ing kike bitch," court records said.
The phone operator then called Nassau County Police, who were able to place a call back to the number that made the threat, where Patkovic again identified himself as "Abrahimavich" and said, "I just called the hospital requesting my f—ing million dollars or I’m going to blow this kike f—ing bitch to the sky."
Isn’t the usual thing, once the call is tracked, to send the police quickly to interview the miscreant, and possibly arrest him? Or were neither the Biden /Harris adminstration’s FBI nor the local Portland police interested in threats to Jewish organizations? Police were called to the hospital where they conducted a partial evacuation and lockdown and did not find explosives.
If convicted, Patkovic could face up to 155 years in prison. Though he has no recent convictions, Patkovic was found to have engaged in similar behavior of making threats of false bombs and weapons in the past.
A keyboard/telephone warrior. "Domagoj Patkovic allegedly issued a series of false bomb threats against Jewish healthcare facilities that prompted repeated emergency responses from local law enforcement and a partial evacuation from at least one hospital," Christie Curtis, the FBI’s acting assistant director in charge, said in a statement.
"These alleged actions incited unnecessary hysteria and redirected limited resources to mitigate a false alarm," she added. "The FBI will not tolerate those who utilize hoax bomb threat schemes to satisfy their antisemitic beliefs and endanger the wellbeing of our communities."
Jewish institutions have experienced periodic waves of widespread bomb threats.
Hundreds of Jewish community centers received bomb threats in 2017 in a wave that was ultimately largely attributed to a teenager in Israel, who was arrested.
The Israeli lad was autistic, and didn’t understand the harm he was causing by doing such things for pay via the dark web — he was just pleased to have found a way to earn money that didn’t involve leaving his room. Israel sent him to prison for it. In 2020, dozens of centers received emailed threats. And Sherlocks said they did not believe the people they arrested were responsible for the full sweep of the current wave of threats and swatting attempts, which they attributed to a swatting ring coordinated online.
Neo-Nazi sicko threatened to blow up multiple Jewish hospitals and care centers around the city and Long Island — and livestreamed the tirades on social media and Discord, federal prosecutors said.
Oregon native Domagoj Patkovic, 31, called at least six Jewish hospitals and and made anonymous bomb threats starting in May 2021 — when he told hospital staffer he wanted to kill all Jews, using an antisemitic slur, according to prosecutors.
Patkovic allegedly said he had planted bombs around the unnamed 13-floor hospital in Queens, which resulted in a floor-by-floor sweep for explosives, according to an unsealed 23-count indictment.
Just minutes later, Patkovic allegedly called in another slur-laden threat to an on-call nurse at a hospice and senior care center with locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan dnad Queens — this time claiming that "bombs are all over your facility" and that Jews are "gonna go skyrocket up into the sky for Allah," US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said.
Patkovic eventually confessed to participating in swatting and bomb threat calls with others in July 2023, according to prosectors — while also identifying himself making the "Sieg Heil" Nazi salute over a man’s unconscious body in a picture from anunrelated incident.
Prosecutors said that Patkovic’s pattern of targeting Jewish centers "reflects the defendant’s religious animus against Jews and his desire to act on that animus," according to court papers.
"As alleged, the defendant and his coconspirators, motivated by their hatred of Jewish people, targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York City and on Long Island with hoax bomb threats, needlessly endangering patients and staff by creating chaos and alarm," Peace said in a statement.
Patkovic is charged with conspiring to make threats concerning explosives, conspiring to transmit threatening communications and other charges.
If convicted, Patkovic faces up to 155 years behind bars.
He is slated to make his first appearance in court in Oregon later Tuesday.
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