Scary Post Puts White Nationalist Behind Bars

James Patrick Reardon was arrested Saturday in Ohio
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2019 5:00 PM CDT
White Nationalist Arrested Over Scary Post on Instagram
James Patrick Reardon.   (Mahoning County Jail)

Police arrested a 20-year-old white man Saturday over an Instagram post suggesting he was about to shoot up a Jewish community center, CNN reports. James Patrick Reardon was booked in Ohio after weeks of worry over his plans. On July 11, he posted an Instagram video of a man shooting a rifle amid screams and sirens, per ABC News. The post tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown and apparently had the headline, "Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist Seamus O'Rearedon"—the Gaelic way of writing his name. "With everything going on, we wanted to make sure we acted very quickly on this," says New Middletown Police Chief Vincent D'Egidio.

Reardon's account was littered with Anti-Semitic and white nationalist ideas, authorities say, and public records showed he owned weapons. Reardon had also attended the deadly Charlottesville protests and declared his white nationalist beliefs in a documentary, WYTV reports. Police raided his New Middletown house Friday, uncovering a weapons cache that included semi-automatic weapons, ammunition, bulletproof armor, and a gas mask along with white nationalist propaganda. He was booked on charges of aggravated menacing and telecommunications harassment and held on $250,000 bond. "The system worked," says an official at an area Jewish federation, who thanked law officers for their "swift and strong response." (More white nationalism stories.)

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