Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, announced on Wednesday that his office reached an agreement with Christopher Brown, 23, to plead guilty “for possessing a firearm as part of a planned terror attack on the New York Jewish community in 2022.”
Brown pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to a count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree as a crime of terrorism, Bragg’s office said. It added that Brown is slated to be sentenced on Nov. 13 “to a promised sentence of 10 years in state prison, followed by five years post-release supervision.”
“Christopher Brown has been held accountable for his plan to commit a violent, antisemitic terrorist attack,” Bragg stated. “Thankfully, we were able to intervene and prevent him from following through.”
“I want Manhattan’s Jewish community to know that we are remaining extremely vigilant against threats of violence during this time of rising antisemitism, and our terrorism and hate-crimes units are continuing to conduct proactive investigations to keep everyone safe,” he added.
Brown admitted in the plea agreement that he wrote antisemitic posts on social media, including “God wants me to shoot up a synagogue and die” and “gonna ask a priest if I should become a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die,” in November 2022. He also “used social media to express support for Nazi ideology and accelerationism, a form of racially and ethnically motivated extremism,” per Bragg’s office.
He also “discussed getting tattoos of Nazi insignia, including a swastika on his heart,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office stated, and “expressed support for and a desire to emulate Brenton Tarrant, who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.”
When officers arrested Brown on Nov. 18, 2022, at Penn Station in New York City, he had a knife, a swastika armband and a ski mask in his backpack. He had purchased a loaded gun in Pennsylvania for $650, the DA’s office said.
