A bizarre tale.
Update at 1:50 p.m. ET: The man went nuts, so not properly War on Terror. Moved to page 3: Non-WoT.
—tw for the moderators. [NYPost] A Utah man who allegedly threatened to shoot up New York City synagogues in a series of social media posts was arrested as he tried to cross into Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel Friday night, according to police and sources.
Luis Ramirez, 23, was taken into custody around 5:30 p.m. by Port Authority cops in New Jersey after authorities were alerted to a rash of antisemitic posts he allegedly made on his X account, the NYPD and sources said.
In one post, Ramirez cited Central Synagogue on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, police said.
The NYPD was made aware Ramirez was traveling to the Big Apple from out of state and Port Authority police was able to nab him before he made it to Manhattan, police said.
The Community Security Initiative, a joint program run by the UJA-Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York to bolster security for Jewish institutions, flagged the threats and worked with law enforcement to notify synagogues across the city, sources said.
Ramirez, who has no criminal record, was allegedly found in possession of a firearm when he was stopped earlier on the road trip in Kansas City, ABC News reported, citing police sources.
He had no weapons in his car when he was stopped outside the Lincoln Tunnel on Friday night, sources said.
No charges have been filed as the investigation is ongoing, police said.
On Friday afternoon, CSI picked up on threats that Ramirez had posted on social media.
“The Jews killed me in my past life,” Ramirez said on X on Friday. “Today in NYC when I pull up to Shabbat I will kill you first.”
“That’s not antisemitic or hate speech that’s called self defense,” he said in a follow-up post.
On Thursday, he wrote, “I will be visiting my brothers and sisters in NYC tomorrow pull up to Shabbat at the Central Synagogue.”
CSI passed the threats to the NYPD’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau and issued a warning bulletin to Manhattan Jewish locations. Law enforcement said Ramirez owned weapons and tracked Ramirez as he traveled toward New York.
Mitch Silber, the director of CSI, said Ramirez was a US military veteran. Ramirez’s account on X identifies him as a Marine officer candidate.
It was unclear how Ramirez was radicalized or why he chose to target Jews in New York.
On Thursday he posted, “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is a messenger of God,” in English and Arabic.
The incident is the latest in a series of attempted attacks on US Jewish targets.
Last month, an armed man was arrested in Florida for planning an attack on an AIPAC office.
In December, the FBI arrested a college student for a planned mass casualty terror attack against the Israeli consulate in New York City.
In September, a suspect was arrested in Canada while attempting to enter the US to attack a Jewish center in Brooklyn in support of ISIS.
In July, a neo-Nazi was indicted for planning mass casualty attacks against Jews in New York City by distributing poisoned candy to Jewish children.
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