Man arrested in synagogue plot inspired by Pittsburgh attack

A 21-year-old Ohio man accused of planning to attack a Toledo synagogue told undercover FBI agents that he was inspired by Islamist propaganda and the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre that killed 11 people, authorities said Monday.

“I admire what the guy did with the shooting actually,” Damon Joseph wrote to an undercover FBI agent Oct. 30, three days after the Pittsburgh attack, agents wrote in an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Robert Bowers, 46, was charged with 44 counts of murder in an attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October.