Colorado Man Arrested In Bomb Plot

 

 

The FBI has arrested a 27-year-old Colorado man who was allegedly planning to bomb a synagogue in Pueblo.  Court documents say Richard Holzer was arrested after he examined fake pipe bombs that had been prepared by co-conspirators who turned out to be undercover agents.  His arrest came just two days before his planned bombing of The Temple Emanuel synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado.

“After being contacted by undercover FBI agents posing as fellow white supremacists, Mr. Holzer indicated that he wanted to do something that would let Jewish people in the Pueblo community know that they are not welcome and that, according to him, they should leave or they will die,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Jason Dunn said.

Undercover FBI agents had been tracking and interacting with Holzer since late September after he came on their radar for continually talking about killing Jews in online forums.  The investigation of Holzer began after an undercover FBI agent purporting to be a woman who supports white supremacy contacted him on Facebook in September. Holzer allegedly sent the agent pictures and video of himself with guns and images related to white supremacy.

Agents say Holzer once wrote on Facebook, “I wish the Holocaust really did happen… they need to die.”   According to court documents, Holzer messaged the undercover agent about initiating a racial holy war and said with was going to Temple Emanuel “to scope it out.”  He told the agent that he planned to poison the synagogue with arsenic-something he claimed to have done before, but ultimately wanted to shut the synagogue down and condemn it.

That agent arranged for him to meet with friends who were actually more undercover agents on Oct. 17 in Colorado Springs. He allegedly talked to them about his plan before volunteering that he could use Molotov cocktails on the building when asked what other methods he was considering to shut down the building. The FBI claims that Holzer was the first person to mention using explosives during the meeting. After they visited the synagogue later that day, the affidavit says Holzer observed that Molotov cocktails would not be enough, and he and the agents then discussed using pipe bombs, which the agents offered to supply.

During a meeting where the agents brought what Holzer thought were live explosives, he described them as “absolutely gorgeous” and said they should go ahead with the attack overnight to avoid police, the court document said.  The agents arrested him during that meeting.

The Temple Emanuel synagogue is the second-oldest in Colorado and was completed in 1900, according to Temple Emanuel’s website.  It has a congregation of about 30 families and a rabbi from Denver who travels two hours away to Pueblo twice a month.