FLORIDA
Martin Alan Schnitzler, 43, plead guilty to a hate crime for calling two mosques located in Pinellas County, Florida, and threatening to firebomb the mosques and shoot their congregants.
Schnitzler plead guilty to obstructing persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs for making the violent threats.
“Our Constitution and laws guarantee all people – regardless of where they worship – the right to live free from violence and discrimination,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Criminal threats of violence against people or places of worship have no place in our society, and as proven today, the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute those who commit religion-based hate crimes.”
(Schnitzler’s Death Threats Provided to Tampa Bay Times by Law Enforcement)
As part of his plea, officials said he admitted that on Nov. 13, 2015, he intentionally obstructed members of the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Islamic Society of Pinellas County from practicing their religion when he left voicemail messages threatening the safety of the mosques’ congregants.
Schnitzler admitted that his threats were prompted by the terrorist attacks in Paris.
Among other things, Schnitzler also said one of the voicemails threatened to “personally have a militia” report to one of the mosques and “firebomb you, shoot whoever is there on sight in the head. I don’t care if they’re [expletive] two years old or a hundred.”
As a result of the above threats, both mosques requested increased law-enforcement presence at the mosques.
“The right to worship as one chooses, free from threats and intimidation, is one of the core principles upon which our great nation was founded,” said U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of Florida. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to taking whatever action is necessary to vindicate this important First Amendment right.”
Sentencing for the defendant will be scheduled at a later date.
The FBI is investigating the case.