Timothy Holmes, 31, was charged with threatening to “shoot up a synagogue,” the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.
The 31-year-old allegedly wrote “I’m going to shoot a synagogue” on social media in response to a post from an official Israeli government account about the assassination of the then head of the Iranian regime.
He faces up to five years in prison, the department said.
“Antisemitism has no place in our society,” stated Andrew Boutros, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “This administration has made clear that threats and violence against the Jewish community will not be tolerated. Working closely with our law enforcement partners, we will find, prosecute and hold accountable the perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic threats and violence.”
The Justice Department also said that Holmes made “a series of derisive posts concerning Jewish people” and that he “posted the purported address in the United States of relatives of an Israeli government official.”
Holmes was arrested on March 18 in Florida and appeared “that afternoon in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida,” the Justice Department said. “Over the government’s objection, he was ordered released on a $100,000 bond subject to various conditions.”
Those conditions included being barred from owning a gun or dangerous weapon, contacting victims or witnesses and using social media or “chat-based platforms,” and he had to let the court install a GPS monitor and to give it access to his electronic devices to make sure that he complied with the requirements. He also can only travel to the relevant districts, in Illinois and Florida, where he is to appear in court.
