This archive report was first published on 19 August 2019.
On July 11, James Patrick Reardon, a 20-year-old Ohio man, posted a disturbing video on his Instagram account, firing a gun and referencing the Youngstown Jewish Family Community.
The video, which was captioned with a reference to a local white nationalist, was tagged with the location of the community center and sparked a swift response from authorities.
Andy Lipkin, executive vice president of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, said his staff was made aware of the video on Friday and immediately contacted the authorities.
Local synagogues were briefed, and the federation provided them with extra uniformed security. A raid on Reardon's home took place on Friday after a local search warrant was issued.
Reardon was taken into custody without incident and is being held on $250,000 bond. The F.B.I. said it could not provide additional details about the investigation, which is continuing.
Reardon's arrest comes amid a recent series of threats and attacks targeting Jews and minorities. In October 2018, a gunman killed 11 congregants in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and in April, a shooting at a synagogue in San Diego left one dead.
According to the F.B.I.'s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the number of reported hate crimes motivated by religious bias rose by 24 percent between 2015 and 2017, with the proportion of those crimes targeting Jewish people growing from 51 percent to 58 percent of the total.
