He threatened to “exterminate” Jewish individuals and Asian Individuals. He mentioned he would shoot up synagogues. He mentioned that “Hitler was proper about you individuals.”
Over the course of greater than a 12 months, Andre Lackner focused a Jewish girl with antisemitic, anti-Asian texts similar to these, threatening each her and her household, based on court docket paperwork obtained by The Occasions.
The Northridge man has admitted to spewing hate by way of textual content messages and pleaded responsible Monday within the Central District Court docket of California to at least one federal cost of stalking. He’s dealing with a most sentence of 5 years in federal jail.
Court docket paperwork state Lackner had a historical past of threatening mass shootings at colleges, cruise ships and on the Coachella music pageant, all documented by the FBI. He was beforehand arrested on suspicion of threatening to hurt one other particular person.
In 2017, he known as his former Venice Excessive College trainer and threatened to kill her and her household — the trainer had not heard from Lackner since he graduated in 2006. 4 days later, he confirmed up on the park the place she was strolling her canine, based on court docket paperwork.
The girl he texted was somebody he had briefly dated in 2007 and with whom he had remained on pleasant phrases, the paperwork say. Lackner despatched the messages sporadically between June 2021 and October 2022.
The messages started with him telling the sufferer that he would hurt himself and others. Upon receiving these, she replied by encouraging him to hunt assist and indicated that, if she obtained any extra such messages, she would report Lackner “out of concern for [his] security and the protection of these round him.”
In August 2021, the sufferer rejected Lackner’s request to fulfill in particular person. The racist, violent texts continued, though the lady not replied.
She reported the messages to the San Diego Police Division in January 2022 and blocked Lackner’s telephone quantity. The texts, nonetheless, continued to reach on her laptop computer through iMessage.
The sufferer lastly reported Lackner to the FBI after Lackner despatched her an e-mail that ended with, “I’ll be certain I kill a Jew earlier than I go away this earth.”
The girl advised the bureau, “I’m extraordinarily involved that he’ll comply with by way of with one in every of his threats.”
The textual content messages brought about the sufferer to be in “cheap worry of demise and severe bodily harm to herself or one in every of her rapid relations,” based on a information launch from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.
In a press release, U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada mentioned his workplace would stay steadfast in standing as much as hate.
“We should maintain accountable these like this defendant who make vile, anti-Semitic, and racist threats that put victims in worry for his or her lives,” he mentioned. “I applaud regulation enforcement for performing decisively to intervene and defend the sufferer.”
Lackner’s public defender, Lisa LaBarre, declined to make a press release to The Occasions as a result of she mentioned her consumer’s case was ongoing.
In court docket proceedings final 12 months, Lackner blamed his habits on psychological sickness. Court docket paperwork state Lackner has been recognized and handled for bipolar dysfunction.
In line with court docket paperwork, Lackner’s father advised pretrial providers that he believed his son “was a hazard to the neighborhood and ought to be detained.”
U.S. District Choose Dale S. Fischer scheduled a June 3 sentencing listening to.
