Jewish teen’s 245 threats detailed
AN ISRAELI-American teen was charged Friday with making 245 terrorizing calls to Jewish Community Centers, and he was chillingly specific in his threats aimed at children, authorities revealed.
In one particularly harrowing call in early January, Michael Kadar, 18, allegedly said he was five minutes away from an Orlando, Fla., center and armed with an AR-15 rifle.
“Kadar warned that he was going to shoot children in the head, and that there was going to be a bloodbath,” said a criminal complaint the U.S. Justice Department filed. Four minutes later, the teen allegedly called in a bomb threat to a JCC preschool in Tampa, Fla.
“Kadar warned that the shrapnel would blow off the children’s heads and two dozen children would be slaughtered,” the complaint filed in federal court in Orlando said. “Kadar claimed to be in a car by the school with a detonator in hand.”
The Jewish teen with dual American and Israeli citizenship was arrested last month at his home in Ashkelon, a city on Israel’s southern coast.
Authorities said Kadar used an online “spoofing” service to hide his caller ID and change his voice so he sounded like a woman. He placed his calls over the Internet using Google Voice and used the digital currency Bitcoin to further cover his tracks between January and March, authorities said.
Officials claim Kadar also called the Orlando International Airport on Feb. 16 and stated he helped smuggle a “TATP” bomb onto United Airlines Flight 1965. TATP is an explosive that was used in the Paris terror attack last November.
Kadar was charged Friday with the Florida threats as well as cyberstalking and making a swatting call in 2015 that claimed numerous hostages were being held at gunpoint at a residence in Athens, Ga.
The JCC Association of North America said it welcomed the charges filed Friday.
Kadar’s lawyer has told reporters he suffers from a “very serious” medical condition.