19-year-old Michigan man pleads guilty to threatening a mass shooting targeting Jewish people in Instagram messages
By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — A 19-year-old Michigan man pleaded guilty Monday to threatening to commit a mass shooting targeting Jewish people in a series of Instagram messages, authorities said.
Seann Pietila exchanged messages with another Instagram user in June about committing a mass killing and streaming the attack online, according to the indictment. In at least one of the messages highlighted by prosecutors, Pietila specifically referenced wanting to inspire others to “take arms against the Jewish controlled state.”
The messages “demonstrated sympathy with neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism, and past mass shooters,” the US Department of Justice said in a news release.
Pietila’s guilty plea comes as the Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities in the United States report a dramatic increase in threats or bias. FBI Director Christopher Wray warned last month that antisemitism is reaching “historic levels” in the country.
The FBI got a report about Pietila’s online exchange around June 13, and days later detained him and served a search warrant at his home, where they found firearms, tactical vests, scopes, a Nazi flag, black skull masks and other items, according to the criminal complaint.
On the notes app of Pietila’s iPhone, investigators found the name of an East Lansing, Michigan, synagogue, a date and a list of weapons, including bombs, Molotov cocktails and guns, according to the complaint.
Pietila later told investigators that he didn’t plan on following through with the mass killings he discussed, the affidavit says. He also told investigators he knew one of the users he was messaging on Instagram to be a 16-year-old boy in New Zealand, the complaint says.
Pietila pleaded guilty to a single federal charge of transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce. He faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. His sentencing will be held in March, and he will no longer be allowed to possess any firearms, according to the Justice Department.
CNN has reached out to Pietila’s attorney for comment.
“No one should face violent threats because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or any other status,” Mark Totten, the US Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, said in a statement. “At this moment of increased threats across the nation, we renew our commitment to prevent, disrupt, and prosecute illegal acts of hate fueled by antisemitism, Islamophobia, or anti-Arab bias.”
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