Arrest made following national threats to Jewish community centers

An angry ex-boyfriend is allegedly behind at least eight of the serious threats made against Jewish Community Centers nationwide, plus a bomb threat to New York’s Anti-Defamation League, federal officials said Friday. The reason, you ask? To harass and “vilify” his former girlfriend that he dated during the summer of 2016.

According to WCVB, Juan Thompson, 31, was arrested in St. Louis and will appear in federal court in Missouri on Friday afternoon on a charge of cyber stalking, authorities said. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. There was no reported information on if Thompson will have an attorney who could comment on his behalf. The threats were allegedly made as part of a harassment campaign against his ex, using her name while making numerous threats.

According to a federal complaint, the day after the two broke up, the woman’s boss received an email from a fake national news organization claiming that she’d been pulled over for drunken driving. This never happened, and was fabricated by Thompson.

The harassment got worse from there, federal officials told FOX News. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) received an email on Feb. 21 that said she was behind the bomb threats to the JCCs and that there’d be more coming the following day. On Feb. 22, they received a phoned-in bomb threat. Thompson also claimed she was the one behind a bomb threat towards a Jewish center in Dallas and emailed a JCC in San Diego saying she wanted to “kill as many Jews asap.”

The woman Thompson was allegedly targeting works for a social service agency in New York City. According to NBC, Thompson also allegedly made a second phone threat to the ADL the next day and proceeded to threaten the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Jewish museum, and a Jewish school in New York. Thompson also allegedly threatened a Jewish school in Michigan, claiming he planted two bombs and was “eager for Jewish Newton,” which was an apparent reference to the December 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Authorities, however, told NBC News they don’t believe Thompson is behind the rest of 100+ bomb threats against JCC centers that occurred this year, describing him as a “copycat.” Nobody has been hurt as a result of the bomb hoaxes, but they have raised fears of rising anti-Semitism in the country since the election of President Trump. The FBI is still searching for the person or persons behind those threats.