A South Jersey man who brought 200 bombs to a D.C. church had a note targeting the Supreme Court, ICE, Catholics, and Jews, police say
Prosecutors said the Vineland, N.J., man was found with more than 200 homemade explosive devices and posed a significant danger to the public.
A South Jersey man who was arrested in Washington over the weekend and charged with possessing a cache of explosives inside a tent he had set up near a Mass intended to honor the Supreme Court was ordered Thursday to be jailed until trial.
Prosecutors said during a brief hearing in Washington’s Superior Court that Louis Geri, 41, of Vineland, posed a significant danger to the public. They said that was evident from Geri’s decision to build a tent Sunday outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral before the Red Mass — an annual event marking the start of a new Supreme Court term — and fill it with more than 200 homemade explosive devices.
When police encountered Geri near his tent early Sunday morning, court records show, Geri told responding officers: ”You might want to stay back and call the federales, I have explosives."
Geri continued to threaten to use the devices — which he described as bombs, bottle rockets, or grenades, court documents said — saying he would throw them into the street, at trees, or toward officers. At one point, the documents said, he told an officer: “Several of your people are gonna die from one of these.”
After officers were eventually able to enter Geri’s tent, the documents said, he handed them papers on which he had written notes expressing “significant animosity” toward the Catholic Church, Jewish people, members of the Supreme Court, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He was charged with crimes including possession of a destructive device.
Because of the early-morning investigation outside the cathedral, none of the Supreme Court justices attended this year’s Red Mass.
Geri did not speak Thursday while seated before D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann.
His public defender, Amanda Epstein, told Herrmann that Geri — who also had an Arizona address listed in court documents — was a Rowan University graduate who had not actually used or tested any of the devices found in his tent.
But prosecutors said preliminary testing showed that the devices were operable, and that some of them contained nitromethane, a compound often found in homemade explosives. They also said his repeated threats to use the explosives made him a potential danger to the public.
Herrmann agreed and ordered Geri to remain in custody as his case proceeds.
His next court appearance is scheduled for later this month.