A California man pleaded guilty to “a federal charge of stalking and admitted to engaging in a 14-month campaign, in which he threatened a victim and threatened to shoot synagogues and ‘exterminate’ Jewish people and Asian Americans,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced on Monday.
Andre Morrow Lackner, 35, of the Los Angeles neighborhood of Northridge, has been in federal custody since December 2022. He will be sentenced on June 3.
He sent abusive text messages, including “Hitler was right about you people” and “I want to see every single Jew exterminated from this earth,” to a victim between June 2021 and October 2022, per court documents.
He also texted “Would you like to celebrate the next synagogue shooting?” and “I will make sure I kill a Jew before I leave this Earth,” as well as “We need to start more Asian hate and wipe” Asian people “off the planet too,” per the attorney’s office.
“The text messages Lackner sent the victim placed her in reasonable fear of death and serious bodily injury to herself or one of her immediate family members,” it added.
Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, stated that his office “will remain steadfast in standing up to hate and working to unite our community.”
“We must hold accountable those like this defendant who make vile, antisemitic and racist threats that put victims in fear for their lives,” Estrada added. “I applaud law enforcement for acting decisively to intervene and protect the victim.”
“The defendant’s abhorrent words and actions caused his victim to experience fear of harm and death,” added Donald Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. “The FBI urges victims of stalking to contact law enforcement to make a report.”
