An anti-LGBTQ extremist with “hundreds” of rounds of ammunition, two loaded shotguns, and two stun guns was arrested Monday by agents of the FBI and the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force after threatening the NYC Pride Parade, wanting to “make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk.”
But it wasn’t just NYC Pride he was allegedly targeting.
NBC News reports “Robert Fehring, 74, was charged with mailing dozens of letters threatening to assault, shoot and bomb LGBTQ-affiliated individuals, organizations and businesses, including New York City’s annual Pride festival.”
Fehring allegedly also had photographs from a Long Island, New York pride parade in his Bayport, New York home. He was “charged with mailing dozens of letters threatening to assault, shoot and bomb LGBTQ-affiliated individuals, organizations and businesses, including New York City’s annual Pride festival.”
Agents last month executed a search warrant and also found a “stamped envelope addressed to an LGBTQ-affiliated attorney containing the remains of a dead bird, federal prosecutors said.”
The criminal complaint also states that since 2013, Fehring “has sent organizations and businesses associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (‘LGBTQ+’) community, as well as government agencies, numerous letters via the USPS in which he has threatened violence, including through the use of firearms and explosives.”
[Caution: Disturbing language below.]
A May 2021 letter to the head of an NYC LGBTQ organization reads:
The following month a letter addressed to a Sag Harbor, NY LGBTQ organization read:
A third letter contained a photograph apparently of one of the people he was targeting at the Eisenhower Pride event, saying in part:
“[W]e were right there you fudge-packing, scum-sucking, disgusting, fucking animal…FREAK!!! They couldn’t get
a shot off at you, slithering around the back stage area like a snake. Too many cops. Very disappointed. But your time has come. . . . They are out to KILL you….and your boyfriend. You are being watched. No matter how long it takes, you will be taken out….high-powered bullet….bomb…..knife…. whatever it takes.”
And still another letter included this:
“As alleged, the defendant’s hate-filled invective and threats of violence directed at members of the LGBTQ+ community have no place in our society and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This Office is firmly committed to protecting the civil rights of all members of every community in this district, including the LGBTQ+ community and other minority communities.”
Image by Studio Sarah Lou via Flickr and a CC license