A New Jersey man accused of having a Molotov cocktail outside a D.C. cathedral also had more than 100 homemade explosives and a manifesto expressing hate for the Supreme Court, immigration agents and the Catholic and Jewish faiths, court documents show.
The criminal complaint against Louis Geri, 41, says he boasted about having a cache of bombs while speaking Sunday with Metropolitan Police officers at his tent by St. Matthew’s Cathedral, which was set to host its Red Mass marking the beginning of the new Supreme Court term.
Officers asked Mr. Geri to leave the tent he had pitched on the cathedral’s front steps when they approached him at about 6 a.m. Sunday, the complaint says. He refused and told the police, “You might want to stay back and call the federales. I have explosives, bombs.”
A bomb squad officer told Mr. Geri he needed to move to prepare for the Red Mass, court documents say. Mr. Geri acknowledged that’s why he was camping on the cathedral steps, and asked officers if they wanted him to demonstrate how potent his explosives were.
“Do you want me to throw one out? I’ll test one out in the street. I have a hundred plus of them. If you just step back, I’ll throw one in the street, no one will get hurt, there will be a hole in the street,” the suspect said, according to the filing. “If you just step back, I’ll take out that tree. No one will get hurt, there will just be a hole where that tree used to be.”
The complaint says Mr. Geri threatened officers’ lives when they tried to remove him from the tent. To de-escalate the situation, the bomb squad officer agreed to read his manifesto, titled “Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives.”
Mr. Geri began reaching into a bag, saying, “Alright, if you want to do it, we’ll do it now,” as police unzipped a flap to get a better look inside the tent.
Officers attempted to distract the suspect by inquiring about the nine-page manifesto, according to the documents. Mr. Geri confirmed that he wrote it and then fiddled with several vials containing an unknown yellow liquid.
Mr. Geri held a lighter up to the vials and exclaimed, “You better have these people step away or there’s going to be deaths, I’m telling you now,” according to the filing.
Police backed off, at which point the cathedral’s business manager came out to show a barring notice against Mr. Geri. The notice stated that he had camped out on the church’s steps on Sept. 26, prompting police and the cathedral to secure the notice against him.
When Mr. Geri left the tent to urinate on some trees on the church’s property, police swiftly arrested him, the complaint says.
Authorities searched the tent and found “a large cache of handmade destructive devices.”
Mr. Geri was charged with a hate crime of manufacturing or possessing a weapon of mass destruction, possessing Molotov cocktails, assault on a police officer, threats to kidnap or injure a person, unlawful entry and resisting arrest.
A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Mr. Geri to remain behind bars during his initial court appearance on Monday. He is due back in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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