Illustrative. Neo-Nazi rally, c. 2002.
Photo: Public Domain.

i24 News – A neo-Nazi man in Michigan was charged with plotting an antisemitic terror attack at a local synagogue, US officials said Friday.

Seann Patrick Pietila of Pickford, Michigan, was just arrested by the FBI today for allegedly planning to commit a mass shooting at a synagogue in East Lansing.

Here are some of his posts from a few months ago: https://t.co/v9qTX0f45V

— Kevin D. Reyes (@KevinDReyes) June 17, 2023

US media reported that Seann Patrick Pietila, aged 19, admitted to posting antisemitic screeds on his Instagram profile, where he also sung the praise of fellow right-wing extremists, including the gunmen behind mass shootings in Norway in 2011 and New Zealand in 2019. He was charged with interstate communication of threats.

Federal agents discovered the Nazi flag and multiple firearms in the suspect’s Upper Peninsula home.

Investigators said his phone contained a note referring to the Shaarey Zedek Congregation synagogue in East Lansing, Michigan and the date March 15, 2024. The date will mark the fifth anniversary of a mass shooting in a Christchurch, New Zealand where a white supremacist murdered 51 Muslims. An equipment list in his phone included pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails.

FBI agents have arrested a Michigan man today who is accused of planning a mass killing at a synagogue in East Lansing,Michigan. Seann Patrick Pietila discussed the attack on Instagram,court documents said.
During a search of his home,FBI agents recovered numerous firearms & more pic.twitter.com/bFkvtE2mfG

— Natalie_Smith✡️🇬🇧❤️🇮🇱 (@natalie_Zion_) June 17, 2023

Investigators said the suspect attended high school in East Lansing in 2021, but now resides in Pickford Township near the Canadian border.

Western Michigan US Attorney Mark Totten said that the suspect “evinced a neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism, glorification of past mass shooters, and a desire and intent to mimic past mass shooters or mass casualty events” during online communication.

The arrest coincided with the guilty verdict in the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman, who perpetrated the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.