Ohio man charged with threatening mass shooting at Jewish center
Anti-Semitic materials found at home of James Reardon, 20, who posted a video of himself firing a rifle with a caption about a shooting in Youngstown Jewish Community Center
Federal authorities announced charges Thursday against an Ohio man accused of threatening a Jewish community center in a video police say shows him shooting a rifle.
Police in New Middletown in northeastern Ohio arrested 20-year-old James Reardon in mid-August after police say he posted a video on Instagram on July 11 of himself shooting a semiautomatic rifle.
The video included sounds of sirens and screaming with the caption: “Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist.”
A federal charge filed August 19 and unsealed Thursday charges Reardon with transmitting threatening communications via interstate commerce.
Police and FBI officers raided Reardon’s home on August 16.
Police say they found semiautomatic firearms including M16 rifles, dozens of rounds of ammunition, body armor and anti-Semitic and white supremacist materials at Reardon’s home.
Reardon reportedly took part in the deadly August 2017 protest by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to local media reports.
The local Jewish community praised the quick work of the FBI and local police.
“It is because of their efforts that a very positive resolution to this matter has occurred,” read an August 17 statement by Youngstown Area Jewish Federation vice president Andrew Lipkin, who called Reardon’s arrest “a clear example of everything going right. The system worked.”
Lipkin said ensuring the security of the local Jewish community and the “members and guests” of the JCC “has become a vital part of the mission of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, a mission from which we will never waver.”
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