A Colorado white supremacist was arrested before his planned attempt to bomb a historic synagogue, according to the FBI.
Richard Holzer, whom the FBI describes as an outspoken 27-year-old white supremacist, was arrested after plotting with undercover FBI agents whom he believed to be fellow white supremacists to destroy a synagogue in Pueblo, Colo. Holzer’s arrest comes in the wake of synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh, Penn., and Poway, Calif.
Holzer allegedly said after his arrest that he had planned to bomb the synagogue at night, when no one would be inside. If anyone was inside, though, Holzer purportedly said he would still go through with the attacks, describing Jewish people as a “cancer” and calling the bombs he would use to destroy the building as “absolutely gorgeous.” Holzer also plotted to use arsenic to poison the water at Pueblo’s Temple Emanuel synagogue, the second-oldest synagogue in Colorado, according to the FBI.
