Police said the man arrested outside a Washington, DC, cathedral on October 5 had hundreds of explosives and documents suggesting he planned to attack Catholics and Supreme Court justices.
Louis Geri was detained in front of the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle before the annual “Red Mass,” which welcomes Supreme Court judges and legislators. Police reported that Geri had possible explosives on him and also in his tent set up near the entrance to the church.
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When police approached him at the store, he told them, “You better stay back and call the feds, I have explosives/bombs,” court documents show.
Police officers and the bomb squad conducted an additional search and said they found documentation that “revealed his significant animosity toward the Catholic Church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS, and ICE/ICE facilities.” The search also “revealed a large cache of destructive handmade devices recovered from (his) store,” police said.
Geri also threatened to throw an explosive into the street and said he had “a hundred or more of them,” according to police.
The documents found in Geri’s store were titled: “Written negotiations to prevent the destruction of property by detonating explosives,” police reported. The suspect confirmed to police that those papers were his.
An administrator at St. Matthew’s Church provided police with documentation showing that the Metropolitan Police Department had banned her from being there and that Geri had previously been at the cathedral on September 26, when she set up her tent on the steps and refused to leave.
The police said that Geri told them: “Several of your people are going to die from one of these,” in reference to the explosives.
Geri was charged with trespassing; manufacture, transfer, use, possession or transportation of Molotov cocktails or other explosives for illicit purposes; threats of kidnapping or injury to a person; assault on a police officer; possession of a destructive device; manufacture or possession of a weapon of mass destruction (hate crime); and resisting arrest. He remains detained without bail.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Tessa Gervasini
Tessa Gervasini is an intern at Catholic News Agency and a member of College Fix. He recently graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s degree in strategic communications.