New York prosecutors charged a Texas man with making “terroristic threats” against state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, on Thursday.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Jeremy Fistel, 44, of Plano, Texas, was arraigned on a 22-count indictment after he left “a series of increasingly alarming anti-Muslim messages” with Mamdani’s office.
“The defendant told the assemblyman to go back to Uganda before someone shoots him in the head, to keep an eye on his house and family, to watch his back every second until he leaves America, and that he and his relatives deserve to die,” Katz said. “The defendant has now been extradited to Queens to face the serious charges against him.”
In expletive-laden messages, Fistel allegedly told Mamdani—a Ugandan-born Muslim who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018—that “Muslims don’t belong here.”
“I hope you get terminal cancer and die a painful death very soon,” Fistel allegedly wrote in a message on Mamdani’s website. “I’d love to see an Israel Defense Forces bullet go through your skull. Would be even better if you had to watch your wife and kids murdered in front [sic] you before they end your pathetic miserable life.”
Fistel was arrested on Sept. 11 and extradited to Queens on Sept. 17. If convicted of the top charge, he faces up to 15 years in prison. His next court appearance is scheduled for November.
