Rex Crofton, 25, of Albuquerque, N.M., is facing federal hate crime charges after prosecutors say he carried out back-to-back attacks on a synagogue and a Jewish community center in Albuquerque earlier this month.
According to a criminal complaint filed on Thursday, Crofton allegedly used a blunt tool to shatter glass entry doors at Congregation Albert on June 2 before driving minutes later to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque, where he again allegedly struck the building’s glass doors.
“He ‘flipped’ off the synagogue, yelled something indecipherable, then entered his vehicle and left the parking lot,” the filing states.
At the JCC, video allegedly shows Crofton exiting his car and repeatedly striking the glass doors with what appeared to be a crowbar. A security guard approached and followed him back to his vehicle. Prosecutors said Crofton then placed the tool inside the car through an open passenger window before the guard pepper-sprayed him through the opening. Crofton then fled the scene.
Following the incidents, Crofton allegedly sent text messages to his sister’s boyfriend stating, “I just hit two synagogues in five minutes” and “send the cops my way; I’d love to kill all of them,” according to prosecutors. The sister and her boyfriend contacted 911, telling dispatchers they believed Crofton may have had access to firearms and expressed concern “that he would commit a mass shooting,” the filing states.
Crofton was arrested on June 3. After invoking his right to counsel, he allegedly made a spontaneous statement to FBI agents that he had recently been pepper-sprayed, prosecutors said.
During a search of his residence, law enforcement recovered a tool consistent with the one seen in surveillance footage, as well as a Smith & Wesson revolver, ammunition and magazines for other firearms not located at the scene. Agents also found what appeared to be a torn Ukrainian flag marked with a swastika and other symbols.
Crofton’s mother told the FBI that her son had torn down the flag from a dentist’s office because “he felt it was connected to Ukrainian Jews.”
Crofton’s family told investigators he had recently exhibited increasingly antisemitic behavior and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a personality disorder, and was not taking prescribed medication. His sister told the FBI she had seen him speaking to his mother via a Ring camera and appeared intoxicated and “manic.” During that conversation, he allegedly said he was “going to kill Jews.”
He has been charged with damage to religious property, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. On June 12, he was ordered detained pending a preliminary and detention hearing scheduled for June 16.
