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Man Who Posted Plans on Facebook to Kill Jews Sentenced to 1 year in Jail

[additional-authors]
June 5, 2019
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

(JTA) — A Washington state man who pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Jews was sentenced to one year in jail.

Dakota Reed, 20, was arrested in December weeks after the Anti-Defamation League tipped off the FBI about social media posts threatening to kill Jews praying in a synagogue or kids in school. He was charged with two felonies.

Reed was not charged with a hate crime, since his posts skirted the letter of the law under the Washington state statute.

He pleaded guilty in May to two counts of threats to bomb or injure property for his hate speech on several fake Facebook accounts, which were registered under pseudonyms.

“I would just like to apologize and let you know I’m remorseful,” Reed said Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court, the local Heraldnet publication reported.

One year in prison is the maximum sentence allowed according to the charges.

In his social media posts, Reed never named a particular person or place he would target, but indicated he would shoot up a synagogue in 2025.

Reed also claimed to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan and said he wanted to emulate Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine worshippers in a South Carolina church in 2015.

Out on bond, Reed continued to post threats on social media.

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