The New Jersey man arrested Oct. 5 on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., had hundreds of explosives and a manifesto suggesting he was targeting Catholics and Supreme Court Justices, according to a police affidavit reported by multiple outlets.
Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department said they encountered 41-year-old Louis Geri around 6 a.m. on the cathedral steps, where he was attempting to pitch a tent, CatholicVote reported Oct. 5. Geri had previously been banned from the property.
When police asked him to leave as they secured the area before the city’s annual Red Mass, Geri allegedly responded, “You might want to stay back and call the federales. I have explosives/bombs,” according to court documents FOX News released Oct. 8. He later allegedly added, “I have a hundred plus of them.”
The affidavit states that police then told Geri he may be forcibly removed from the site, to which he replied: “Several of your people are gonna die from one of these.”
As officers tried to de-escalate the situation, one agreed to read something Geri had written, according to the affidavit. Holding a butane lighter, Geri allegedly handed officers nine handwritten pages titled, “Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives.”
The manifesto “revealed his significant animosity toward the Catholic church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS and ICE/ICE facilities,” police wrote, according to The Daily Wire.
After eventually apprehending Geri, officers found what they described as “a large cache of handmade destructive devices” inside the tent, the affidavit stated.
The Daily Wire reported that in a jailhouse interview, Geri told police he had modified bottle rockets treated with thermite and bottles filled with mitromethane and planned to detonate the devices from a distance.
Geri was charged with unlawful entry, threats to kidnap or injure a person, and possession of a Molotov cocktail. A judge ordered him to be held without bond.
The arrest occurred just hours before the cathedral was set to host the annual Red Mass, a tradition dating back to 1953 that marks the opening of the Supreme Court’s judicial year, CatholicVote reported Oct. 5. The liturgy, organized by the Archdiocese of Washington and the John Carroll Society at St. Matthew’s, draws judges, attorneys, lawmakers, and government officials to pray for wisdom in administering justice.
Although Supreme Court justices often attend, organizers reportedly said none were present this year. Six of the nine sitting justices are Catholic, and two are Jewish, FOX reported.
Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., condemned the attempted attack in an Oct. 8 statement, writing that a “radical leftist lunatic tried to blow up St. Matthew’s Cathedral during the annual Red Mass” and that the suspect “had every intention of killing the faithful Catholics and SCOTUS justices gathered to pray.”
“This leftist violence is a spiritual sickness,” said Moore, who is Catholic. “It must be brought to an end immediately.”
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