Suspect indicted for making terror threats against New York synagogue

A suspect is indicted for making terror threats against a New York synagogue, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announces.

Luis Ramirez, 23, from Utah, was arrested in February after making threats against Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

Ramirez posted threats on X on February 14, including, “The Jews killed me in my past life if you try to kill me again today in NYC when I pull up to Shabbat I will kill you first.” He also said he was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler.

Hours later, police in New Jersey arrested Ramirez as he drove toward the Lincoln Tunnel to New York.

Ramirez is indicted for making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, a felony; making a terroristic threat, also a felony; and aggravated threat of mass harm, a misdemeanor. The top charge carries a mandatory prison term of three-and-a-half years if Ramirez is convicted.

“Nobody should have to fear for their safety when they are in a house of worship, and the language allegedly used by this defendant is extremely disturbing,” Bragg says in a statement. “My office will remain vigilant against any and all threats to the Jewish community.”

Ramirez’s threatening posts were first identified by the Community Security Initiative, a Jewish security group, which relayed the threats to law enforcement, leading to the arrest.

Law enforcement has thwarted repeated terror threats against Jewish community members over the past year in New York and other areas of the US.