White Supremacist Who Called Synagogue Shooting a 'Dry Run' Arrested On Illegal Gun Charges
LatestJeffrey R. Clark Jr., a 30-year-old living in the D.C. area, was arrested last week after his relatives alerted the police about his alarming violent, white supremacist statements. Clark has since been arrested and charged with illegally possessing a firearm and a high-speed magazine, according to the Washington Post.
Clark’s relatives became concerned after they heard his angry outbursts about subjects like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October, in which a white supremacist killed 11 Jews. Clark allegedly told family members that he believed the shooting victims “deserved it.” These outbursts reportedly first occurred after Clark’s brother committed suicide.
Clark’s brother was also a white supremacist and member of the alt-right.
From the Post:
Edward Clark, 23, fatally shot himself on Roosevelt Island near Washington within hours of the Oct. 27 Pittsburgh shooting at Tree of Life synagogue, the court filings for Jeffrey Clark said.
Relatives told police both brothers had been involved in alt-right movements, the court records said. Jeffrey Clark told FBI agents he and his brother became interested in guns in 2016 “because they believed there was going to be a civil war,” according to an account of his statement filed in court.
Both brothers were members of Gab, the social networking site used by Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers to post anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant screeds. Clark reportedly followed Bowers on the site.
In one post on Gab before the shooting, Clark described himself as the “Meth-Smoking, Pipe bomb making, mailman-murding . . . Che Guevara of the altright,” according to court docs. Clark also posted an image of the Pittsburgh gunman on the site with the caption, “This was a dry run for things to come.”
Since the shooting, multiple businesses, including Paypal, have distanced themselves from Gab, essentially shutting it down. The site later returned under new hosting.
Clark apparently warned family members after the synagogue shooting that the FBI might pay him a visit because he followed Bowers online. “They had not broken any laws, but at some point if a line gets crossed, I would be violent, everyone has a line,” he said, according to court documents. Police said that the brothers “fantasized about killing ‘Jews and blacks.’”
The Clark brothers had amassed a small arsenal of weapons, including a “Remington Arms handgun, a Mossberg shotgun, a Beretta handgun and a Ruger Mini-14 rifle,” according to the Post. Jeffrey Clark also surrendered a Colt .38 handgun that wasn’t registered to either brother. Two kits that would turn AR-15 rifles into fully automatic guns were confiscated. In Edward Clark’s room, the police found “two ballistic vests, two ballistic helmets and two gas masks,” according to the Post.
If it wasn’t already clear that Clark is a dangerous psychopath, his choice of idols certainly helps.
From the Post:
Court papers said Clark’s relatives told authorities that Clark admired Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and killer Charles Manson and that relatives said “Jeffrey and Edward Clark believed there would be a race revolution and they wanted to expedite it.”
Clark made his first appearance at the D.C. superior court on Saturday. He will be held until at least Friday.