Suspect in synagogue attack plot is Jewish
NEW YORK — One of the men busted in a plot to shoot up a city synagogue is Jewish and his grandfather survived the Holocaust, prosecutors and relatives said Sunday.
Matthew Mahrer, 22, who was arraigned on weapons charges Saturday night, conspired with Christopher Brown, also 22, to buy a gun and “shoot up a synagogue and die,” according to their criminal complaints, before police stopped them.
“I never figured he would get involved in something like this. He’s Jewish, you know? It’s unbelievable,” said Mahrer’s maternal grandfather, Stuart Rubenstein. “I don’t know how he got involved. The other kid was more involved. The other kid must have talked him into it.”
Rubenstein said Mahrer’s paternal grandfather was a Holocaust survivor.
Brown declared his intentions to make “big moves” in a string of tweets over the past several days, sending the NYPD and federal authorities into a scramble to find him.
“I have a sick personality. I was going to be a coward and blow my brains out,” he told police after his arrest Friday night.
Brown admitted he was a white supremacist, and has made several comments alluding to or bragging about violence online, assistant District Attorney Alexander Bourdakos said during his arraignment on weapons and terror charges.
Brown told prosecutors that Mahrer was one of his followers.
Brown, who bought a gun in Pennsylvania, also had a copy of “The Turner Diaries” — a 1978 novel frequently cited by white supremacist terrorists, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — in his Long Island home, prosecutors said.
He and Mahrer were busted at Penn Station late Friday night, after Brown started posting his plans on his now-defunct Twitter account, “VrilGod.”
Brown’s string of tweets started Nov. 12, when he announced “Big moves being made on Friday,” prosecutors said.
“Gonna ask a Priest if I should become a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die,” he tweeted on Thursday, and on Friday, he followed up, “This time I’m really gonna do it,” according to prosecutors.
The tweets, and others, sent police scrambling to find Brown, and at 11:50 p.m. on Friday, after police released a wanted poster, Metropolitan Transit Authority officers spotted him and Mahrer in Penn Station and took him into custody.
Police found a bag with a Glock-style pistol, a large-capacity magazine, and 17 9 mm bullets in a bag in the lobby of Mahrer’s apartment building at about 11 p.m. Video showed Mahrer carrying the bag as he and Brown walked into the building about 45 minutes earlier.
When police arrested the duo, Brown had “a large 8-inch military style knife, with a blade longer than 4-inches, a Swastika arm patch and a ski-mask,” according to the criminal complaint.
“It took me three years to finally buy the gun,” he told police. “Matt is one of my followers. I have Nazi paraphernalia in my house. I think it is really cool. I also operate a white supremacist Twitter group.”
Brown said he and Mahrer met at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before buying the gun because he “wanted to get the blessing,” according to the complaint.
A friend of Mahrer’s named “Jay” drove the pair to his house in Pennsylvania to buy a gun, and Brown sent Mahrer $650 through Cash App to make the purchase, he said, according to the complaint.
Brown is charged with making a terroristic threat and several weapon possession charges.
Brown, who appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday morning wearing a camouflage puffer jacket and blue jeans, was ordered held without bail.
He admitted he was a white supremacist, and has made several comments alluding to or bragging about violence online, Bourdakos said.
Mahrer, who was arraigned late Saturday night on weapon possession charges, was ordered held on $150,000 cash bail or $300,000 bond.