Michigan man accused of planning to target synagogue is charged with threats #Michigan #man #accused #planning #target #synagogue #charged #threats

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a 19-year-old Michigan man accused of making threats over social media and having loose plans to target a synagogue near Lansing, the state capital.

Seann Pietila, of Pickford in the state’s Upper Peninsula, has been in custody since June 16. An indictment charging him with making threats, including a threat to kill by fire, was filed Tuesday in federal court in Grand Rapids.

“No one should face violent threats because of their race, ethnicity, religion or any other status,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten.

U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell is pictured inside his courtroom in downtown Grand Rapids on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Robert Holmes Bell, a federal judge for 30 years whose trials included one that led to a rare death sentence in Michigan, has died. He was 79. (Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)

Robert Holmes Bell, a federal judge for 30 years whose trials included one that led to a rare death sentence in Michigan, has died. He was 79.

Museum officials in Grand Rapids, Michigan, showed off mastodon bones that were unearthed last year during a drainage dig in the western part of the state and belonged to a juvenile male mastodon that lived 13,000 years ago.

FILE - Mark Totten, Democratic candidate for Michigan attorney general, gives his concession speech during an election night rally in Detroit, Nov. 4, 2014. Eleven people have been charged in Michigan in a scheme to evade air-pollution rules by tampering with software and hardware in heavy-duty diesel engines, federal authorities said Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Nine of the 11 have agreed to plead guilty, along with three companies, including Diesel Freak LLC, Accurate Truck Service and Griffin Transportation. Diesel Freak rigged at least 362 vehicles and some “are still on the road,” U.S. Attorney Totten said. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

Federal authorities in Michigan have filed charges against 11 people in a scheme to defeat air-pollution rules by tampering with software and hardware in heavy-duty diesel engines.

A message seeking comment was left for Pietila’s attorney.

When Pietila was arrested, investigators said, he had the name of the Shaarey Zedek congregation in East Lansing on his phone along with a 2024 date. He wrote to another Instagram user that he would “inspire others to take arms against the Jewish controlled state.”

During a search of his home, agents said, they found a cache of weapons, knives, tactical equipment, and a red-and-white Nazi flag.

Agents said he made apparent references to the New Zealand shooter who is serving life in prison for killing 51 people and injuring 40 others in the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.

Pietila was arrested the same day a truck driver was convicted of storming Tree of Life, a Pittsburgh synagogue, in 2018 and killing 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror.

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