Man Arrested After Plotting to Bomb Colorado Synagogue

Federal officers have arrested Richard Holzer, 27, for plotting to bomb Temple Emanuel, a synagogue serving a small congregation of Jewish families in Pueblo, Colo.

According to a criminal complaint , undercover FBI agents had been talking with Holzer since September and had been tracking many of his multiple Facebook accounts in which he promoted acts of violence, including racially-motivated acts of violence, and talked to other "like-minded individuals" through private messages about attacking Jewish people and minority groups.

Among the messages he wrote was one in which he said, “I wish the Holocaust really did happen..." In another message, he said he was getting ready to shoot people while showing pictures of him holding guns and white supremacist regalia.

According to the criminal complaint, Holzer told the undercover FBI agent that he would poison the Synagogue, possibly with arsenic, like he had done a year before, forcing the synagogue to shut down for months. He then mentioned he could weld the doors shut and put together Molotov cocktails. Holzer was later arrested and transported to a police station, where he admitted he had planned to blow up the Synagogue with pipe bombs and dynamite.