Suspects in plot to shoot up NYC synagogue conferred with state prison inmate, prosecutors say
NEW YORK — The wannabe Nazis who planned to shoot up a synagogue in New York City plotted with two other people, including a state prison inmate whom they told about their plans to get a gun, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
The new detail emerged as Christopher Brown and Matthew Mahrer, both 22, were indicted in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Brown, a confessed white supremacist, posted a series of disturbing tweets promising “big moves” and saying that he might “shoot up a synagogue and die,” according to prosecutors.
Mahrer, who’s Jewish and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, joined him on his quest to buy a gun in Pennsylvania for $650 on Nov. 18, prosecutors said, a mission that ended in the duo’s arrest in Penn Station.
Brown faces terrorism and hate crime charges, while Mahrer is charged only with weapon possession and conspiracy offenses.
Brown, Mahrer and a third person were together about 4:15 p.m. on Nov. 18 — hours before the arrest — when Mahrer got a phone call from his inmate buddy. The friend was serving a 3 1/2-year sentence for possessing three loaded guns, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Edward Burns said.
Mahrer put the phone call on speaker, and he and the third person told the inmate they were on their way to Pennsylvania to buy a gun, according to Burns. That third person has since been arrested on federal charges, prosecutors said, though he wasn’t named in Wednesday’s court proceeding.
Before his arrest, Mahrer was sending money to the state prison inmate who called him, and even after he was busted, Mahrer arranged for someone else to continue the payments, Burns said.
Mahrer’s lawyer Brandon Freycinet countered that the payments weren’t a crime.
“Nothing illegal about having a friend who’s sending them money,” the attorney said. He added that Mahrer has “no ill will towards his own people.”
Brown 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 had a large knife, a swastika arm patch and a ski mask in his backpack when he was arrested, prosecutors alleged.
Mahrer was released Nov. 21 on $150,000 bond, while Brown remains held without bail. Mahrer, whose parents put up $15,000 to secure his bond, has joined a vocational training and mental health support program, his lawyer said.
