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‘Developing Threat’ to New York City’s Jewish Community Thwarted With Arrests of Armed Men at Penn Station

Law enforcement authorities in New York City detected and thwarted a “developing threat to the Jewish community” over the weekend.

“By early Saturday, the NYPD’s exhaustive intelligence-gathering led to the arrest by sharp-eyed MTA police officers of two individuals entering Penn Station, in Manhattan, and the seizures of a large hunting knife, an illegal Glock 17 firearm and 30-round magazine, and several other items,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell stated.

“As a joint investigation now continues to establish a strong prosecution, Police Department commanders are strategically deploying assets at sensitive locations throughout New York City,” she added.

The arrested men were identified as Christopher Brown, 21, of Aquebogue, New York, and Matthew Mahrer, 22, of Manhattan.

Brown is being charged with making a terroristic threat, aggravated harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon, and Mahrer faces a single charge of criminal possession of a weapon.

According to a CNN report, threats began appearing on a Twitter account on Nov. 12 and were traced on Friday to a computer at a veterinary clinic where one of the suspects worked.

“Gonna ask a priest if I should become a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die,” one post allegedly read, and another was said to refer to “big moves being made on Friday.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul thanked Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) police on Saturday for their “vigilance and heroic work.”

Last week, an 18-year-old New Jersey man, Omar Alkattoul, was arrested in connection with the publication of an online manifesto containing threats to attack a synagogue and Jews.

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