TWO YOUNG MEN SENTENCED FOR PLOTTING TO ATTACK MUSLIM COMMUNITY
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) —
Two of four young men arrested for plotting to attack an upstate New York
Muslim community with homemade explosives were sentenced Friday to four to 12
years in prison. Brian Colaneri, 20, and Andrew Crysel, 19, pleaded guilty to
terrorism conspiracy in June. They and two others from the Rochester area were
accused of planning to attack Islamberg, near Binghamton. Police have said they
had access to 23 rifles and shotguns and three homemade explosives when they
were arrested in January.
Islamberg is a rural
Delaware County community of about 200 residents that has been targeted with
accusations, many spread on right-wing websites, of being a terrorist enclave.
In 2017, a Tennessee man was convicted of federal charges for what authorities
called plans to burn down Islamberg’s mosque. Police and analysts dismiss the
terror camp claims. “Your terrorist threat was not only an invidious threat to
the way of life of your victims, but also a threat to everyone in our
democratic society,” Monroe County Court Judge Samuel Valleriani told the men
at sentencing.
Both defendants
expressed remorse. “I never wanted it to go that far,” Colaneri said, according
to WHEC in Rochester. Islamberg resident Tahirah Clark, the community’s general
counsel, said the plot has changed residents’ lives. “Our children are afraid,
they’re afraid, but yet resilient and strong and attempting to make the best of
our new normal,” she said, according to the Democrat & Chronicle , which
reported that more than a dozen community members attended the sentencing.
A third defendant,
Vincent Vetromile, 20, is scheduled to be sentenced to seven to 12 years in
prison Aug. 29 after pleading guilty to weapons possession. A 16-year-old high
school student from suburban Rochester pleaded guilty in youth criminal court
last month to criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism. He will
be sentenced to seven years in state prison, serving the first two years in
juvenile detention.
Investigators
uncovered the plot after a student reported a suspicious comment in a
lunchroom. “This horrible incident shows the importance of coming forward if
you believe there is any chance of violence against another,” Assistant
District Attorney Matthew Schwartz said. “Thank you to the members of the
community who voiced their concerns and the Greece Police Department for
investigating the matter.”
Prosecutors said that
for months late last year, Vetromile, Colaneri and Crysel made plans to acquire
weapons and discussed strategies and methods for an attack. Vetromile, they
said, solicited an individual to make explosive devices. “These defendants
targeted the inhabitants of Islamberg solely because of their religious
beliefs,” Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said, “and will have
years in the New York State Department of Corrections to reflect on the
severity of their actions.”
Source: Associated
Press – 17 August 2019
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