Ohio Police Nab 13-Year-Old in Synagogue Shooting Plan
A thirteen-year-old boy from Canton, Ohio, is accused of plotting to shoot a Jewish synagogue in the area in broad daylight.
Due to his age, the adolescent is charged with both disorderly behavior and inciting panic, which are misdemeanors. He is not identified by name in court documents.
He is charged with sharing on the internet platform Discord a “detailed plan to complete a mass shooting” at Temple Israel in Canton, a community south of Akron.
Authorities claim that antisemitism in the US has increased over the past several years, with deadly mass shootings at synagogues in 2018 and 2019. This coincides with the filing of the accusations.
Ohio police arrest 13-year-old boy for plotting mass shooting at synagogue:
Ohio police arrest 13-year-old boy for plotting mass shooting at synagogue https://t.co/HEwFCRoCR3 . Click to read ⬇️
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) December 14, 2023
According to court documents, the Canton synagogue case was discovered on September 1 and reported to law authorities. December 20 is the date of the hearing.
Contacts for comment were not immediately answered by an attorney for the boy or a representative of the Stark County Sheriff’s Office, which is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Because the matter involves a juvenile, Rabbi David Komerofsky of Temple Israel declined to comment.
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The Anti-Defamation League of Cleveland expressed gratitude to law enforcement for their prompt action and expressed their hope that this would be a “teachable” moment for youth in a social media message.
The league added in the statement that “hatred and threats on social media, as in real life, cannot and will not be tolerated.”
Following the horrific Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7—during which terrorists killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 240 others—and the ensuing Gaza war, for which Israel has come under heavy fire for the deaths of Palestinian civilians, antisemitic incidents and speech have escalated dramatically.
According to the ADL, the number of antisemitic occurrences in the two months following the war is higher than it has ever been.
