‘Out for blood’
Man arrested in plan to bomb Oklahoma bank
OKLAHOMA CITY — A 23-year-old man who was “out for blood” when he attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank in a plot similar to the deadly 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, authorities said Monday.
During a meeting with undercover FBI agents in June, Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Okla., said he held “III% ideology” and wanted “to start the next revolution,” a reference to the “Three Percenters” patriot movement — begun in 2008, galvanized by President Barack Obama’s election — and that has rallied against gun control and pledges resistance to the federal government over the infringement of constitutional rights.
Federal officials arrested Varnell Saturday in connection with a plot to detonate a vehicle bomb adjacent to BancFirst in Oklahoma City.
Varnell made an initial appearance before a federal judge Monday afternoon and remains in the custody of federal marshals.
Officials said Varnell initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., with a device similar to one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more.
In a series of text messages with the FBI’s informant, Varnell “claimed to have a bunker for when the world (or United States) collapsed” and indicated he was trying to build a team, the complaint states.
“I’m out for blood,” the complaint quotes Varnell’s texts.